So that we, from now on, are acquainted with no one according to the flesh. Yet even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, nevertheless now we know Him so no longer.
2 Corinthians 5: 16 Concordant New Testament
One can seldom navigate their way through a normal work week without being embroiled in what has become known commonly as "office politics." So it was once again for me this week. Now, I usually try my best to stay clear from the collateral damage of these hand grenades tossed by others, but there are times when I get stuck in the middle. So much so, that this week I found myself asking the Lord in a moment of frustration, "Lord, do they even know You?" Of course, I have zero idea the religious leanings of many of the people I work with, but God knows. He also knows my heart and my history. A history of how I used to be among those that tossed the grenades of discontent and verbal abuse. I used to be among that crowd that reveled in the hurt feelings of those I worked with. Yet, I'm known by those behaviors no longer. What happened? Well, to make a long story short, Jesus happened. More importantly, Jesus in my life*. I learned that I cannot be known for things I am no longer affiliated with. For some time, I have turned to 2 Corinthians 5:16 whenever the politics of life have brought me to that point of forgetting what it is the Lord Jesus has accomplished in me. Not only in me, but in other around me as well. See, I have never held a patent on the grace and mercy of God. I am but one whom the Lord Jesus has graced with His love and forgiveness. But it's here where many well-meaning believers get tripped up. I know I'm one of God's children. I know who I truly am in Jesus. Yet there are times when this is where my perspective of the saving grace of Christ stops. For how could Jesus extend grace to the man who just flipped me off? How could Christ give mercy to the one whose wicked words just cut me to the core? Easy, the same way that He did when I once dabbled in those behaviors. I haven't cornered the market of knowing Jesus and receiving His love and grace. Yet I am the better man having known Him.
If anyone should be saying that "I am loving God,' and should be hating his brother, he is a liar; for he who is not loving his brother whom he has seen can not be loving God whom he has not seen.
1 John 4: 20 Concordant New Testament
To be brutally honest, I have never been the perfect Christian. However, I've always tried to be the best believer I could be. Anyone see the slight difference in those statements? Far too often, well intentioned believers get sucked into the behaviors of religion. There is a reason by which politics and religion should never be argued, for when they are there can be no clear winner. I have not classified myself as a Christian for some time now. I'm no longer part of that system. No, I am a believer. A believer in the finished work of Christ Jesus. It is only as a believer that I could have come to the realization of seeing Jesus for who He truly is. Not the crucified flesh which hung on a Roman cross, but the Son of the living God whom the apostle Paul declared lives in us {Galatians 2:20}. As a believer, I no longer know Jesus as He was. I now proclaim Him as He is. But what does the resurrected Jesus have to do with believers behaving badly? Only the fact that the very same believer I look down upon today enjoys the same status in Christ that I enjoy. When I look down upon others, I am engaging in things which are reserved only for God. I'm not in the judgement business, as my opinions can be a bit biased. We do well to remember that it is a loving God who gives mercy not only to us but to those around us as well. I don't know about you, but I like the view from my side of the fence.
*I meant the phrase "Jesus in my life" to exemplify how Jesus has come to live in me. However, a few churchy, Pharisee school graduates may take it to mean that I'm not comfortable with the reality of Christ in me. Fortunately, my own heart knows better.
~Scott~
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