Lenten Devotions - Day 34
“When people sin, you should forgive and comfort them, so they won't give up in despair. You should make them sure of your love for them.” 2 Corinthians 2:7-8
Ours is a violent society. Our nation was birthed in the context of war and the struggle for power, wealth, and independence from competing claims for our submission and allegiance. Settlers from England fought to take land from native peoples, from competing European powers, then for independence from the dictates of an English king.
Early on, we learned to settle our differences with the use of force, torture, and death. Early on, we burned those believed to be witches, tarred and feathered others, and opened the West with the law of the powerful, the fastest draw, and a legacy of “might makes right.” We oppressed African slaves, new immigrant populations, and any we could force to do our bidding and so increase our wealth and prosperity. In the process, we came to shy away from many of these practices. Adopting the law of loving our enemies, however, is still a very distant purpose.
More recently, we have developed more cultured means of intimidation, retribution, and revenge. We hire lawyers to press our desires and sense of being offended before the courts. We battle former spouses in divorce proceedings, we seek financial damages to cover personal stupidity, and pretend that our business dealings are separate from our personal dealings with real people. What we can call legal, we call right, justified, and appropriate.
These socially sanctioned uses of power, coercion, and intimidation, however, simply remain as strategies to avoid the law of love set forth in Christ Jesus. When others fail us, we are not encouraged to get even. Rather, we are challenged by the love of Jesus Christ to forgive as did Jesus from the cross. We are challenged to offer comfort for those who wrong us. We are challenged to allow the love of God to flow through us in an earnest desire to seek their redemption and reconciliation.
From getting mad and getting even, Paul reminds us that we are to take note of the love of Christ Jesus. That love is to flow from us, touching the lives of those who wrong us. We are more comfortable pointing out the errors of others than convincing them of our love and acceptance. We are more of a mind to enforce a demonstration of repentance, penance, and change of character than to offer unconditional love. Love seems counter-intuitive. Love seems a response that does not fit with actions that do us harm. Yet love was the standard of Christ, the example of the cross.
The Bible never says the life of faith is the easy road to travel. The Bible never taught that being a Christian was to live by our natural inclinations, instinct, and the patterns of society, heritage, and the history of our people. It is rather the convocation to leave all else aside to follow the example of the one who loves us enough to face the cross, offering life and love to those who sinned against him, nailing him to a tree. Can we call ourselves Christians and live by conflicting purposes to that love?
Review a short list of people who have sinned against you. Determine to forgive them and find concrete ways to express that forgiveness and allow the love of Christ to flow through you.
“Lord, grant me the grace to let go of my desire for revenge and restitution that I might embrace those who injure me as you embraced the cross on my own behalf.”
—©Copyright 2009 Christopher B. Harbin http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/
Ours is a violent society. Our nation was birthed in the context of war and the struggle for power, wealth, and independence from competing claims for our submission and allegiance. Settlers from England fought to take land from native peoples, from competing European powers, then for independence from the dictates of an English king.
Early on, we learned to settle our differences with the use of force, torture, and death. Early on, we burned those believed to be witches, tarred and feathered others, and opened the West with the law of the powerful, the fastest draw, and a legacy of “might makes right.” We oppressed African slaves, new immigrant populations, and any we could force to do our bidding and so increase our wealth and prosperity. In the process, we came to shy away from many of these practices. Adopting the law of loving our enemies, however, is still a very distant purpose.
More recently, we have developed more cultured means of intimidation, retribution, and revenge. We hire lawyers to press our desires and sense of being offended before the courts. We battle former spouses in divorce proceedings, we seek financial damages to cover personal stupidity, and pretend that our business dealings are separate from our personal dealings with real people. What we can call legal, we call right, justified, and appropriate.
These socially sanctioned uses of power, coercion, and intimidation, however, simply remain as strategies to avoid the law of love set forth in Christ Jesus. When others fail us, we are not encouraged to get even. Rather, we are challenged by the love of Jesus Christ to forgive as did Jesus from the cross. We are challenged to offer comfort for those who wrong us. We are challenged to allow the love of God to flow through us in an earnest desire to seek their redemption and reconciliation.
From getting mad and getting even, Paul reminds us that we are to take note of the love of Christ Jesus. That love is to flow from us, touching the lives of those who wrong us. We are more comfortable pointing out the errors of others than convincing them of our love and acceptance. We are more of a mind to enforce a demonstration of repentance, penance, and change of character than to offer unconditional love. Love seems counter-intuitive. Love seems a response that does not fit with actions that do us harm. Yet love was the standard of Christ, the example of the cross.
The Bible never says the life of faith is the easy road to travel. The Bible never taught that being a Christian was to live by our natural inclinations, instinct, and the patterns of society, heritage, and the history of our people. It is rather the convocation to leave all else aside to follow the example of the one who loves us enough to face the cross, offering life and love to those who sinned against him, nailing him to a tree. Can we call ourselves Christians and live by conflicting purposes to that love?
Review a short list of people who have sinned against you. Determine to forgive them and find concrete ways to express that forgiveness and allow the love of Christ to flow through you.
“Lord, grant me the grace to let go of my desire for revenge and restitution that I might embrace those who injure me as you embraced the cross on my own behalf.”
—©Copyright 2009 Christopher B. Harbin http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/
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