I really am a little nervous about this post, but it's pretty important to me so I'll go on with it anyway.
In my life, experience, and opinion, one of the hardest, if not THE hardest thing to do in Christian community is to fully accept someone. In Romans 15:7, we are commanded to receive/accept one another has Jesus has accepted us. In my NT professor's opinion, this verse is the climax of the book. All the theology of salvation and sanctification is "merely" a foundation for this statement. I tend to agree with him.
If taken to its fullest application, this statement is virtually impossible. How can we possibly love, accept, receive, tolerate, and embrace others the way Jesus does? When you think about it, most people have a lot of annoyances, quirks, idiosyncrasies, and even sins that inhibit love and acceptance.
So am I saying that we fully accept people despite their sins and imperfections?
YES!
Why?
Because if you really think about it, that's what Jesus does for you (and more so, me!) on a yearly, monthly, weekly, daily, and hourly basis! Really. Jesus puts up with more than you can imagine from your own self, the least we can do is put up with it from others. Remember Jesus' parable of the unmerciful servant, that those who don't forgive the trifles we put up with from others declare themselves not to be part of Jesus' followers. Tough, but true. You can try to argue with Jesus, but I'm not sure how far you'll get.
Just take a second to think of how many things cause you to judge others and prevent you from accepting others.
Sports teams, nationalities, Favorite music, favorite tv shows, political ideologies, sins, personalities, home state/city, and I'm sure there are a bevy of others.
Now before everyone gets mad at me for wanting to leave people drowning in their sins and not holding them accountable, let me just say again: Jesus puts up with an awful lot from you--so remember that before you judge someone, or totally refuse to embrace them as fellow Christians.
And in case you're wondering, the thing that prompted this is my own experience of being left out, "picked last", and overlooked for small reasons, and my own intoleration of others.
Thank you, house church, for showing me what full acceptance really looks like!
5 comments:
I've struggled and continue to struggle with this "acceptance" issue like you have written about here. Sometimes it's easy to hold a bit of myself back and not let people accept me and on the other hand it is so easy not to accept someone for whatever reason. The good thing about house church is that instead of having the opportunity to run, to hold back, and to not accept someone, we are forced to deal with issues like this head on at one time or another when we are listening to the Lord and desiring authentic community.
you'll always be my number one draft pick chuck!
jp
andrew,
thanks for the very thought-provoking post. i can't remember exactly where it's at, but there's a verse in 1 corinthians where paul basically tells them to suck it up and be willing to be wronged. that's tough for me. i can accept people (or so i think) unless they wrong me. if i think about, though, i'm in the "wronging" business myself, in fact i'm quite good at it.
good post, thanks again
Mike,
It's in first Corinthians 6, in the context of "in house" lawsuits.
Thanks for the comments, guys. It's definitely difficult to do but worth it!
Man, perfect timing on this one. I am REALLY fed up with one of my neighbors, amongst others, and your post has reminded me how to act/react more Christian-like when I get upset with them. THANKS BRO!
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