Believing in people as Jesus believes in them is about investing
time in them as He would. It’s not about
drawing attention to their faults. It’s
about entering into the material of their lives.
Seeing others through the lens of grace is viewing persons in
our midst as image bearers.
Only one image is borne upon the mind; this person, right here,
with us, in living, breathing, thinking, feeling form, is a being made in the
Creator’s image. The One who created
this one created everything else. They’ve
been made in His perfect image, priceless in value, inestimable in worth.
It doesn’t matter what they’ve done. Jesus’ first interaction is encounter. In encountering Jesus, a person sees their
sin for themselves. It is the Holy
Spirit’s job to convey an understanding and convict a person of their
wrong. Being their Jesus, as all
Christians are called to be, we focus on loving them, and there is no
condemnation in love.
Believing in a person as Jesus believes in a person soon
necessitates action.
Having gotten to know us, and indeed having found safe harbour,
the person soon shares a fear, a vulnerability, a burden, a sin; something they
feel guilty for and ashamed of. Even
then it’s not the case of giving advice.
It’s the opportunity to listen intently, to thank them for their trust,
to enjoy the sign of a newfound intimacy.
To just sit there in the wonder of relational confidence. The person won’t continue to share if they
find us giving them advice. They could
get that from anyone, but never from Jesus.
Only having been convicted from within about an action they need
to take can we endorse it through encouragement — “Go and do likewise.”
At all times, never is a person out of Jesus’ loving care. We’re called to go and do likewise.
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