What constitutes courage? It is not the absence of fear. The absence of fear is stupidity. Instead, courage is the willingness to ignore fear. If there is no fear, there is no courage.
Our pot-modern world doesn’t understand it. How can we oppose homosexuality and still support AIDS research? How can we oppose Islam, and still send charity relief to an Islamic country? They don’t do it for us! How can we believe we are the only true religion and still support freedom of speech? How can we insist we have the right faith, and still treat all faiths in our hospitals? We do not love on the basis of what others believe or do, but on the basis of what we believe and do. We are sinners saved by grace. We love others because of what Christ did for us.
This is moral courage, because we do it in the face of our own fear of sin. It goes against our deepest instincts and emotions to love sinners in their sins. Our nature is to judge as other do, to treat others according to our judgment of them. If we love Christ, we must love as He loved. We must live according to the mandates of divine grace. Believing people are sinners, we love them anyway in spite of their sins. This is the highest form of moral courage, and requires a deep moral discipline.
The worldly person sees our disapproval of sexual promiscuity and homosexuality and thinks we must alse be in favor of the practice of stoning homosexuals. He hears us say that Jesus is the way, truth and life, and thinks that we must be in favor of sending everyone else to hell. We are not. A Christian is one who loves the sinner as he loves himself. Judging the individual according to their behavior or their beliefs is consistent with their values, not ours. It is easy to love people we agree with, but to love those with whom we disagree is real grace. Our treatment of others is not based on what they say or do, but on what Jesus did for us.
Christian Grace colors everything we do. It is the basis for the three great relationships of our lives.
First, it is founded in our relationship with almighty God. Romans 5:6-8 states.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Any grace we may show in our lives is based upon God’s grace. God does not approve of sin, but He sent His Son to die for sinners. He did it to fulfill the letter of the law, so that through the Law the power of the Law might be broken.
Let’s put it another way--why should God love you? There is no reason, any more than there is a reason we should love a fundamentalist Muslim who wants to kill us, or a secular humanist who thinks all evangelical Christians are toothless idiots. We have committed offenses towards God that are every bit as abhorrent to Him as these people’s words and deed are offensive to us.
Paul grew up in an Orthodox Jewish environment. This world committed grave offenses to God. They reduced God to a caricature of His true self—a malevolent, legalistic, moralistic, being who kept the world in bondage. The religious leaders worshipped such a God so that they could maintain power over others and prove themselves superior. If you were God, what would you do with people who so badly represented who He was?
But the Pharisees of Paul’s youth were not the only offenders. Others did not believe in Him at all. Most who do not believe in Him do so out of convenience, not conviction. They rebel against the idea that there is any objective moral standard in the universe. Others believe in Him, but have nothing to do with Him. It is a sad fact that between eighty and ninety percent of people believe in God, but that only about a third regularly worship Him. How do you think God feels about a person who says they believe, but does not worship?
Paul understood something about God that His contemporaries did not. In spite of our sins, God loves us passionately, completely, and sincerely. His love is not based on our performance, neither is rooted “everything is good” mushy morality. His love is rooted in the sacrifice that God Himself made on our behalf. He overlooked His justifiable anger at us and gave us the free gift of grace. He did this so not only to give us freedom from our sins and a way of reconciling to Him, but also to set an example of how we should treat others.
Second, grace is expressed in our relationship we have to ourselves through redemption.
There is a legalistic streak in every Christian, which is primarily displayed in the way we look at ourselves. They believe deep down what growing up in this world has taught them--that their self-worth is based on what they are able to do. Some base their self-esteem on worldly success, others on the opinions of others, and still others on their moral performance. When we succumb to temptation, are rebuked by others, or fail at our jobs, we become worthless.
But God sees us differently. Our sins and our failures, need not define us in our own eyes. We are better than what we do or say or what others think because God has forgiven us.
(If you have never experienced the forgiveness of God, I urge you to stop immediately and turn to Him now. Ask Him to forgive your sins in Jesus’ Name. You will find a new, neither is free relationship to Him.)
Third, grace is expressed in our interpersonal relationships through forgiveness.
As we said at first, grace is not the absence of judgment, but exists in spite of judgment. We do not love others based of what they do, but on what Christ did for them.
There is a story in the Bible that expresses this. It is the story of Hosea and his wife Gomer. God told Hosea to marry a woman who was a prostitute, and who did not love him back. Over and over Gomer cheated on him. Time and again Hosea took her back. He did this to prove a point—love does not depend upon the other person’s actions but ours. God used Hosea’s relationship to his wife as a picture of His relationship to us. He keeps loving, keeps forgiving, keeps blessing, even when we don’t deserve it.
God’s patience is not infinite. but it is long. God will not forever protect us from the consequence of our actions. But even so, He does not love us on the basis of our actions. He continues to love the sinner, and wants us to do the same.
There is a growing trend of godlessness in this world, which is another way of saying that there is a growing hatred of us. But this is what we were created for—to love those who do not love us. We have the privilege of loving as Jesus did—being aware of the sins of others, but courageously loving the world regardless of what it may think of us. This is the way of moral courage—to love in full knowledge of our sins and the sins of others, as we have received that love from others.
What constitutes tolerance? It is essentially the same. Many people think that tolerance is the same as being non-judgmental. But real tolerance is a kind of moral courage. It is not the absence of judgment, but we willingness to love in spite of our revulsion at the behavior of others.
Worldly tolerance is based on the belief that there is no right or wrong. Worldly tolerance teaches that we should see nothing wrong with alternate lifestyles, other religions, or other political views. Worldly tolerance is intolerant only with intolerance. The Ten Commandments are therefore “intolerant.” There is no judgment of anything or anyone.
That is not tolerance. It is stupidity.
The so-called “tolerant” are intolerant have a different list of sins than the religious do, but they have a list. Intolerance comes first, but it also includes being polluters, homophobes, chauvinists, racists, etc. The standards by which they judge these things would make the Salem witch hunters seem tolerant. Any deviation from the politically correct norm is to be labeled “intolerant.” The Bible has another kind of tolerance. Our tolerance is based on grace--which is moral courage. It is not the absence of judgment, but a commitment to love in spite of their sins. It does not deny the sin, but it does love the sinner. Our pot-modern world doesn’t understand it. How can we oppose homosexuality and still support AIDS research? How can we oppose Islam, and still send charity relief to an Islamic country? They don’t do it for us! How can we believe we are the only true religion and still support freedom of speech? How can we insist we have the right faith, and still treat all faiths in our hospitals? We do not love on the basis of what others believe or do, but on the basis of what we believe and do. We are sinners saved by grace. We love others because of what Christ did for us.
This is moral courage, because we do it in the face of our own fear of sin. It goes against our deepest instincts and emotions to love sinners in their sins. Our nature is to judge as other do, to treat others according to our judgment of them. If we love Christ, we must love as He loved. We must live according to the mandates of divine grace. Believing people are sinners, we love them anyway in spite of their sins. This is the highest form of moral courage, and requires a deep moral discipline.
The worldly person sees our disapproval of sexual promiscuity and homosexuality and thinks we must alse be in favor of the practice of stoning homosexuals. He hears us say that Jesus is the way, truth and life, and thinks that we must be in favor of sending everyone else to hell. We are not. A Christian is one who loves the sinner as he loves himself. Judging the individual according to their behavior or their beliefs is consistent with their values, not ours. It is easy to love people we agree with, but to love those with whom we disagree is real grace. Our treatment of others is not based on what they say or do, but on what Jesus did for us.
Christian Grace colors everything we do. It is the basis for the three great relationships of our lives.
First, it is founded in our relationship with almighty God. Romans 5:6-8 states.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Any grace we may show in our lives is based upon God’s grace. God does not approve of sin, but He sent His Son to die for sinners. He did it to fulfill the letter of the law, so that through the Law the power of the Law might be broken.
Let’s put it another way--why should God love you? There is no reason, any more than there is a reason we should love a fundamentalist Muslim who wants to kill us, or a secular humanist who thinks all evangelical Christians are toothless idiots. We have committed offenses towards God that are every bit as abhorrent to Him as these people’s words and deed are offensive to us.
Paul grew up in an Orthodox Jewish environment. This world committed grave offenses to God. They reduced God to a caricature of His true self—a malevolent, legalistic, moralistic, being who kept the world in bondage. The religious leaders worshipped such a God so that they could maintain power over others and prove themselves superior. If you were God, what would you do with people who so badly represented who He was?
But the Pharisees of Paul’s youth were not the only offenders. Others did not believe in Him at all. Most who do not believe in Him do so out of convenience, not conviction. They rebel against the idea that there is any objective moral standard in the universe. Others believe in Him, but have nothing to do with Him. It is a sad fact that between eighty and ninety percent of people believe in God, but that only about a third regularly worship Him. How do you think God feels about a person who says they believe, but does not worship?
Paul understood something about God that His contemporaries did not. In spite of our sins, God loves us passionately, completely, and sincerely. His love is not based on our performance, neither is rooted “everything is good” mushy morality. His love is rooted in the sacrifice that God Himself made on our behalf. He overlooked His justifiable anger at us and gave us the free gift of grace. He did this so not only to give us freedom from our sins and a way of reconciling to Him, but also to set an example of how we should treat others.
Second, grace is expressed in our relationship we have to ourselves through redemption.
There is a legalistic streak in every Christian, which is primarily displayed in the way we look at ourselves. They believe deep down what growing up in this world has taught them--that their self-worth is based on what they are able to do. Some base their self-esteem on worldly success, others on the opinions of others, and still others on their moral performance. When we succumb to temptation, are rebuked by others, or fail at our jobs, we become worthless.
But God sees us differently. Our sins and our failures, need not define us in our own eyes. We are better than what we do or say or what others think because God has forgiven us.
(If you have never experienced the forgiveness of God, I urge you to stop immediately and turn to Him now. Ask Him to forgive your sins in Jesus’ Name. You will find a new, neither is free relationship to Him.)
Third, grace is expressed in our interpersonal relationships through forgiveness.
As we said at first, grace is not the absence of judgment, but exists in spite of judgment. We do not love others based of what they do, but on what Christ did for them.
There is a story in the Bible that expresses this. It is the story of Hosea and his wife Gomer. God told Hosea to marry a woman who was a prostitute, and who did not love him back. Over and over Gomer cheated on him. Time and again Hosea took her back. He did this to prove a point—love does not depend upon the other person’s actions but ours. God used Hosea’s relationship to his wife as a picture of His relationship to us. He keeps loving, keeps forgiving, keeps blessing, even when we don’t deserve it.
God’s patience is not infinite. but it is long. God will not forever protect us from the consequence of our actions. But even so, He does not love us on the basis of our actions. He continues to love the sinner, and wants us to do the same.
There is a growing trend of godlessness in this world, which is another way of saying that there is a growing hatred of us. But this is what we were created for—to love those who do not love us. We have the privilege of loving as Jesus did—being aware of the sins of others, but courageously loving the world regardless of what it may think of us. This is the way of moral courage—to love in full knowledge of our sins and the sins of others, as we have received that love from others.
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