A Lenten Reflection
Seeing God in others
"Thank heavens I'm *not* like *that* person!" "They're so wrong!" "Sinners....just wait until God gets a hold of them!"
When we see ourselves as righteous, elevated, of better moral standing than others......then it is very difficult to see the value and worth in other people. This is a problem plaguing the Church in the Western world. Turn on a religious tv channel and listen for a while; the pastors decry this group, that group, this denomination or another, this political party...it goes on and on and on. All to the effect of saying, "We are better than they. They are sinners and deserve the wrath of God, while we are good and holy."
Who else did that? Who was it that thanked God for being better than the sinners around them?
"He (Jesus) also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed[a] thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:9-14
It is too easy to fall into that trap of being the Pharisee, my friends. It is too easy to gleefully point out the sins of others in order to make our own self esteem feel elevated. (And we do love feeling good about ourselves, don't we?)
"Sin" we cry, pointing it out in someone's life, "sin, sin, sin!"
Yet sin grows in our own hearts, and creeps out in our own lives.
For we sin as well, dear ones. But it isn't very comfortable to admit that, is it? We don't really like examining our own hearts and minds and seeing the corruption that sneaks in and roots so easily.
That is exactly why it is so imperative to keep a guard on our hearts and a watchful stance upon our souls...because sin does come in with such readiness.
The Psalmist prayed to God for aid in this matter:
"Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting" Psalm 139:23-24
The Apostle Paul urged the Church at Corinth to "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves...." (2 Corinthians 13:5)
When we do the uncomfortable, when we ask God to reveal our sin to us, when we remember all of our sins that Christ bore for us upon that Cross....we don't feel very righteous anymore. We don't feel so high and mighty.
At least...I don't.
When I think of MY sins that Jesus bore for ME upon that Cross....the lashing He took, for ME, the nails driven in...for ME, I feel very humbled. I'm not worthy of such love and grace. I don't know why He loves me as He does, I don't know why He took such torture for me, I don't know why He gave His blood and His life for a wretch like me.
But I am so grateful He did.
And in that proper perspective....that I am a sinner only saved by His grace, I see other people differently. There are those I disagree with. There are those who commit sins I find objectionable....but God finds my sins objectionable too, and still loves me enough to have died for me. God disagrees with some of my opinions as well (the ones not yet in alignment with His)...yet He made me in His image and died to redeem me.
So that person who I disagree with; that person who commits a sin that is different than the sin I commit, I need to remember that they too are made in God's image. They too are loved. They too, if they will but answer Christ's call (and maybe they have and I just don't know it), will be saved by His mercy if they repent and cling to Jesus.
When I choose not to see them as having value, as being loved, of needing grace and mercy, compassion and kindness from not only God but from me, then I am lacking in the love of Christ in my life. That is a sin, and one too many Christians in the Western Church fail to acknowledge. We're great at pointing out other sins, but the sin of being hard hearted, of having too little, or no, love, is one we overlook.
But one of the true "tests" of faith is of having love for others. "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." (1 John 4:7–8)
We should be seeking to grow our love for others, to ask God to give us a greater love for our neighbors, so that we may be more like Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. If we find ourselves lacking love for others, let us repent and ask God to renew our hearts!
Let us not be the Pharisee that delights in being more righteous than others, but let us be humble, repentant, bearing true love for God and neighbor...so that we may walk the narrow road that God has set before us.
""If I cannot see God in others, it is because He is not in me. If I get on my moral high horse and say it is they who are wrong, I become that last of all spiritual iniquities, a suspicious person, a spiritual devil dressed up as a Christian. Beware of mistaking suspicion for discernment; it is the biggest misunderstanding that ever twisted Christian humility into Pharisaism." --Oswald Chambers, in Not Knowing Whither from the Quotable Oswald Chambers."
On towards the Cross,
-Beth Haynes Butler
Seeing God in others
"Thank heavens I'm *not* like *that* person!" "They're so wrong!" "Sinners....just wait until God gets a hold of them!"
When we see ourselves as righteous, elevated, of better moral standing than others......then it is very difficult to see the value and worth in other people. This is a problem plaguing the Church in the Western world. Turn on a religious tv channel and listen for a while; the pastors decry this group, that group, this denomination or another, this political party...it goes on and on and on. All to the effect of saying, "We are better than they. They are sinners and deserve the wrath of God, while we are good and holy."
Who else did that? Who was it that thanked God for being better than the sinners around them?
"He (Jesus) also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed[a] thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:9-14
It is too easy to fall into that trap of being the Pharisee, my friends. It is too easy to gleefully point out the sins of others in order to make our own self esteem feel elevated. (And we do love feeling good about ourselves, don't we?)
"Sin" we cry, pointing it out in someone's life, "sin, sin, sin!"
Yet sin grows in our own hearts, and creeps out in our own lives.
For we sin as well, dear ones. But it isn't very comfortable to admit that, is it? We don't really like examining our own hearts and minds and seeing the corruption that sneaks in and roots so easily.
That is exactly why it is so imperative to keep a guard on our hearts and a watchful stance upon our souls...because sin does come in with such readiness.
The Psalmist prayed to God for aid in this matter:
"Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting" Psalm 139:23-24
The Apostle Paul urged the Church at Corinth to "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves...." (2 Corinthians 13:5)
When we do the uncomfortable, when we ask God to reveal our sin to us, when we remember all of our sins that Christ bore for us upon that Cross....we don't feel very righteous anymore. We don't feel so high and mighty.
At least...I don't.
When I think of MY sins that Jesus bore for ME upon that Cross....the lashing He took, for ME, the nails driven in...for ME, I feel very humbled. I'm not worthy of such love and grace. I don't know why He loves me as He does, I don't know why He took such torture for me, I don't know why He gave His blood and His life for a wretch like me.
But I am so grateful He did.
And in that proper perspective....that I am a sinner only saved by His grace, I see other people differently. There are those I disagree with. There are those who commit sins I find objectionable....but God finds my sins objectionable too, and still loves me enough to have died for me. God disagrees with some of my opinions as well (the ones not yet in alignment with His)...yet He made me in His image and died to redeem me.
So that person who I disagree with; that person who commits a sin that is different than the sin I commit, I need to remember that they too are made in God's image. They too are loved. They too, if they will but answer Christ's call (and maybe they have and I just don't know it), will be saved by His mercy if they repent and cling to Jesus.
When I choose not to see them as having value, as being loved, of needing grace and mercy, compassion and kindness from not only God but from me, then I am lacking in the love of Christ in my life. That is a sin, and one too many Christians in the Western Church fail to acknowledge. We're great at pointing out other sins, but the sin of being hard hearted, of having too little, or no, love, is one we overlook.
But one of the true "tests" of faith is of having love for others. "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." (1 John 4:7–8)
We should be seeking to grow our love for others, to ask God to give us a greater love for our neighbors, so that we may be more like Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. If we find ourselves lacking love for others, let us repent and ask God to renew our hearts!
Let us not be the Pharisee that delights in being more righteous than others, but let us be humble, repentant, bearing true love for God and neighbor...so that we may walk the narrow road that God has set before us.
""If I cannot see God in others, it is because He is not in me. If I get on my moral high horse and say it is they who are wrong, I become that last of all spiritual iniquities, a suspicious person, a spiritual devil dressed up as a Christian. Beware of mistaking suspicion for discernment; it is the biggest misunderstanding that ever twisted Christian humility into Pharisaism." --Oswald Chambers, in Not Knowing Whither from the Quotable Oswald Chambers."
On towards the Cross,
-Beth Haynes Butler
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