No matter what is going on in the world or in our culture, our testimony for Jesus is borne out by the way we honor our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are called to ONE body, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, serving ONE God (Ephesians 4). Showing any kind of partiality is wrong. The heart of the fight against injustice, racism, classism, ageism, and all the other “isms” is the way in which we honor our brothers and sisters in Christ.
That is easy enough in theory, but is can be hard in practice, especially if we disagree about things like politics, music preferences, worship styles, clothing, and all the other things that divide us. If we are really serious about our claim to be Jesus followers, we must be known as people who default to grace, mercy, and love the way Jesus did. That means we don’t succumb to the temptations to fight back over insignificant things. It means we hold ourselves to a higher standard of behavior than those who do not yet understand the gospel.
We also need to stop comparing sins. There are no greater or lesser sins; sin is sin and no one can claim to be sin free. Knowing we have been redeemed by Jesus is not license to sin in any way (Romans 6). We must remember that the Law reveals the need we all have for God’s mercy and our response must be to show mercy to the people around us. That includes the people in the church with whom we may disagree. Mercy triumphs.
Defaulting to Grace 