The Road to Hell Is Paved with Good Evaluations
In Hell, everyone understands how *they* got here but not how *I* got here.
In Heaven, everyone understands *how* we got here, but will be completely dumbfounded and overjoyed that *I* got here.
3 Facts will define your life (now and eternally):
1. You need grace (from here: undeserved kindness) far more deeply than you can currently see as your sin goes deeper and is darker than you yet understand.
2. Christ holds out all the undeserved kindness you need, and you’re invited to spend eternity understanding how deep and wide it is.
3. Those around you need undeserved kindness from Christ and you in complimentary ways.
Every person you encounter needs Christ completely. They need His perfect life credited to their account. They need His sacrificial death for their sins. They need His resurrection life by His Spirit.
Every person you encounter understands their need for Christ incompletely. (Yes, that includes you.)
Many see no need for Christ. The lost need our undeserved kindness in the form of loving boldness. We are the ambassadors Christ deputized to announce the undeserved kindness He holds out.
Many others see their need for Christ, yet incompletely. Christians need our undeserved kindness in the form of persevering commitment to their eternal good. We are the embodiment of Christ’s undeserved kindness for them.
Embodying the undeserved kindness of Christ toward His people is a deeply challenging.
So much of this battle to embody underserved kindness is about embracing our complete need for Christ even when we see that need incompletely.
I believe this is the frontier of the battle with everything wrong with us and the world.
When people frustrate you, it is easy to see their flaws. When people create burdens for you it is easy to focus on their baggage. When people sin against you it is easy to fixate on their vices. When people make stupid choices, it is easy to analyze their folly.
Focusing on the flaws, vices, baggage, and stupidity of those around us does not motivate a life of undeserved kindness. It animates the demonic consumption of each other.
We see others as a conglomeration of positives and negatives that will either help us or hurt us. The lies of consuming each other are so easy to hear…
“Why would I want to spend time with someone who…”
“Don’t they understand how much work it takes for me to overcome their…”
“I can’t believe they would say…”
“If they had only…”
We score people this way and then proceed to score ourselves higher than them.
The lie in our heart might say, “We all need undeserved kindness, but they need it more than me this way and that way and another.”
The truth of Christ’s undeserved kindness is so different. Entirely different, even.
We enter relationships with sinners who carry heavy burdens and make bad choices because we are the embodiment of Christ’s undeserved kindness. We operate with the intention of pouring out and building up.
The crucial foundation for this type of life is understanding your need for undeserved kindness, NOT theirs.
If you need kindness less than someone else, you believe you need Christ less than someone else and you will move to embody Christ’s kindness incompletely.
The places you didn’t need kindness, and thus Christ, are the places you will not extend the kindness of Christ. You’ll judge, condemn, analyze, and ultimately find excuses for something other than love.
The problem isn’t them; it is your understanding of your need for Christ’s undeserving kindness.
Don’t believe me? Think about it–can you call a single villain in your life to mind who is not at this very moment experiencing the patience of God against their sin and along with that likely many tangible expressions of His kindness?
How can God give to people like that? Because God is love.
When we fight these lies and love someone anyway, we act out our role as the body of Christ. When we believe these lies and devour those around us, we return to a role hostile to God.
The next time you are frustrated with someone else–actively turn your eyes from where they don’t deserve your kindness to where you didn’t deserve Christ’s. In remembering that you, while undeserving, received kindness you can 1) rejoice and 2) move to display Christ’s kindness to others.
The Christians from a different theological tradition. The person who hurt you. The leader who impacted you in negative ways. The family member who is being horribly self-centered. The person who constantly judges you.
Each presents an fork in the path for you: 1) judgement and condemnation or 2) kindness and commitment.
Jesus Christ showed you the path to kindness and commitment and called you to follow Him.
Taking up the Spirit’s power to treat people with kindness and commitment will force you to regularly see how much judgment and condemnation you deserved.
Yet that’s not what Christ gave to you at all, is it?
Let’s go and do likewise!