Dear Unaccepted Person,
In the past I have failed you and wronged you. I don’t need to go into the reasons why I have done this, because they will merely sound like excuses, but now I realize that kind of treatment is not right, it is not what God would ever want, and it is not how I would ever want to treat another one of God’s children.
I expect that you will be different than me, and that is a good thing! I no longer look through a narrow lens of my own ideals to evaluate people and enforce the notion that everyone should be like me. In fact, I like you just as you are. People have often used the Bible to argue over many things, and have used it as a judgment or test to evaluate people, as if they can know someone’s heart by external indications. In fact, people have mainly used this kind of judgmental behavior to simply group themselves with people they are comfortable with, and to exclude those with differences. Due to this tendency YOU may have been excluded or left out. That is not okay with me any longer! I have no right to judge your heart or anyone else’s. Maybe you are my potential best friend, and the person that is exactly like me in outward appearance is not! Maybe you are the one that will offer me kindness in the future, and that other person will not. I have jumped to conclusions and accepted prejudices in the past, but never again.
In summary, I now accept you, the way that God does. He doesn’t expect people to be perfect when he accepts them. How could they ever do that, especially before they even know him? He invites a person to come to him and to get to know him, exactly as he or she is. That starts a journey that will lead to great joy, and unleash all the good and kind things in that person. I simply invite you to join me. Let’s seek God and his goodness together.
Sincerely,
The Christian
I just had google + this post. It is so beautifully stated.
ReplyDeleteThank you S.!
ReplyDeleteI also want to add that if anyone wants to use this letter in any form, or the concept of it, to do something good for others, please feel free. I don't need to keep any rights to it.
ReplyDeleteNicely written and accurate to a degree yet I feel you're a bit misleading in the acceptance department. Jesus absolutely walked, dined and worked miracles among the sinners BUT Jesus did so not because he accepted their sins but because he sought their repentance.
ReplyDeletePer Luke 5:30-32 (KJV)-
"30 But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?
31 And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.
32 I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
IMO, if we are to follow Christ's path, we should do do in understanding what he meant in Luke 5:32. We should fellowship with the world but stand firm in our convictions. Do not bend to the world seeking their acceptance but be an example of Christ's love by loving them as a human, not as a sinner. Seek not their acceptance, nor accept their sin but seek to share God's love and draw them to repentance as did Jesus.
Very true, that's the problem. It's either acceptance, or its rejection.
DeleteAnonymous: Hello and thanks for discussing this topic with me! I think your view is widely held and is about how God does not accept sin but calls people to repentance. We should do the same. Hopefully I am summarizing correctly
ReplyDeleteI may have a useful concept to apply here. Both john the baptist and jesus urged people to "repent for the kingdom of haven is near". I think the apostles preached a similar message (except Here instead of Near). I have also been taking a stand lately saying the same thing to the church, like Look the kingdom of heaven is Now and we all need to get our act together and invest in things that matter and in liberating the captives (so to speak).
So, maybe we should just separate the concepts of Acceptance (leading to salvation) from God's Will or Judgment of us and our actions. Instead of saying our actions lead to an eternal reward in the form of salvation, let's say that in Gods kingdom now we are under his authority and will, and pleasing him, participating in a relaiotnship with him and partnering with him to build his kingdom, are not about his Acceptance but about Living in the kingdom.
Does that help or does it still leave our standing WRT sin in question?
One result of this type of thinking is that when we stand up against injustice we are calling people to repentance, and our call is motivated by the pain they are causing others more than a requirement from God in order to receive his Grace.
Another result is that we have to be careful to Accept others the ways that God accepts us all the while calling people to love each other and to make the world into a better place as Gods kingdom on Earth
Just a different view of the role of sin I think