Go and Do The Same...

As I was reading through Paul’s artistic rendering of God’s basic plan of salvation for mankind in Romans chapter three, I was once again impressed its simplicity and love infused foundation.  This portion of scripture continues with the theme of God’s patience, gentleness and His goodness toward us that we discussed yesterday.  His salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus is total and complete and leaves us with “A reverential affection for God that is peculiar to the children of God, which springs from a sense of divine goodness and is attended with holiness of heart and life…”  (John Gill’s Commentary on Romans 3:18)

Ours is a relationship with God that is not driven by fear, but a respectful awe of His continual love, goodness and patience that He showers on us.  His relationship with us is what causes us to walk as Jesus did.  With an unyielding, open hearted and non-judgmental love (1 John 4:17).  I thought of this the other night when we were watching a movie on TV.  In one scene, a character in the story comes out of a room dressed in shorts and cowboy boots.  My immediate thought when I saw that was “Geez, you’ve got to be kidding… I wouldn’t be caught dead dressed like that!”  Then in a flash a reminder popped into my mind about not criticizing others, and I had to quickly repent.  Come on now, be honest with me… I bet you may have even done that once or twice!

A few years back when my wife and I were leading the Youth Group at our church, we held a special activity night and brought in a local Christian band known to the members of our group.  Along with the band we were joined by some of the band’s “roadies” and “groupies” that followed the band and enjoyed attending their concerts.  While my strong points have been in the organization and running of these special events, my wife would always jump right in with the crowd and begin ministering to the kids.  This night was no different.

As the evening progressed there was one young gal with a kaleidoscope of brightly colored hair that sat alone in the very back of the room.  My wife was drawn to her like a magnet.  Within a few minutes they were deeply involved in conversation.  When I had some free time I joined them.  By then my wife had developed the beginnings of a meaningful relationship with the girl.  This quiet young lady who no one else wanted to associate with was an intelligent, loving individual with lots of gifts to share.  My wife brought her around the room and introduced her to some of the other girls in the room.  This shall we say “different looking” teen ended up returning to our regular weekly meetings on many occasions and became a valuable asset to the group.  If my wife had not gone against the popular notion to judge the girl and ignore her, we all may have missed an opportunity to make a new friend and be blessed by the unique gifts that God had given her.

That is a good example of how judgments can hurt both the giver and receiver.  That is not God’s way.  God’s way is for us to follow the example of Jesus.  Why, He even stepped into the middle of a stoning to make a point about judging another individual - even though the women had been physically caught in sin.  (John 8:1-11)

Remember, patience, kindness and unyielding, non-judging acts of love.  It could be the beginning a whole new way of life!  We received “God’s approval freely by an act of his kindness through the price that Jesus paid to set us free from sin.”  (Romans 3:24 God's Word) We should go forth and do the same!  Ah… go ahead give it a try!  Have a day filled with His goodness, tune into His Word and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today