Grace is what makes the Body of Christ stand out and stand apart. It is the one fruit more than any other that testifies to the reality of the transforming power of Jesus Christ. Grace should make us stand out because growing it, living it, and giving it means learning three things:
First, it means we need to be learning to respond with grace. It means learning to be a people whose nature it is to be gracious, not judgmental or critical. It means being a people who are more inclined to exercise the gift of grace than the right to be right. The Body of Christ is the lab where we learn the practice of grace. We need to be intentionally and consciously working at making sure that the environment we create when we get together is one that fosters and encourages grace, not one that discourages it.
Each of us needs to understand the power that is wielded when we speak. Proverbs 18:21 (JPS) says, Death and life are in the power of the tongue, those who love it will eat its fruit. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. How seriously do you take that? How we respond to people has profound and far reaching effects.
What we say and what we do not only effects the people we are directly communicating with but all the people who are in that environment with us when we do. How we relate to one another creates an environment. That environment will either be one that is clean and fresh so that it encourages life, or it will be more polluted so that growth becomes more stunted or even impossible.
Grace is only learned by practicing it. And therefore grace is only learned in life together. We need to work together at being a place where grace not only happens, but is encouraged to happen because we have a relational community that cultivates the practice and growth of grace. That leads right to the second point,
Second, it means taking the opportunity to be gracious. These opportunities appear as conflicts, hurts, let downs, disappointments, headaches, and heartaches. This is what grace is for, responding these things.
A few years ago my daughter Maggie asked me if she could have an owl for a pet. “Owls don’t make good pets Maggie,” I said. “Yes they do,” she retorted.
“No, owls don’t make good pets. They are predatory birds.”
“They don’t eat people!” she protested.
“True, they don’t eat people. But their claws and beak can really hurt you badly. Their nature is to attack and defend themselves. They don’t make good pets. As a matter of fact, it’s illegal to have an owl for a pet.”
It is the nature of owls to hunt and kill. The same is true with wolves, lions, tigers, and bears. It is not in their nature to be domestic. True you can train them to entertain, to work, or to be around people. But you don’t see trainers and owners of these animals without special equipment; they are fully aware of the nature of these animals.
Just like the nature of an owl is to hunt and kill its prey, the nature of human beings is to sin. There is no human being born of a man and a woman who does not share this nature. Acting from self-centered ambition is natural to us.
The reason that passages like Ephesians 4:2-3 (NIV) Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace; and 4:32 (NIV) Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you; and 1 Peter 3:8-9 (NIV) all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing, are so common throughout the Scriptures is because God knows that there are going to be plenty of opportunities where we will be tempted to do otherwise. The peace that God promises in this world is not freedom from conflict, but a peace that comes from having the supernatural power of divine grace to overcome conflict.
The only way to learn forgiveness is to be offended. The only way to learn compassion is to be faced with a person’s pain. The only way to learn to love the way God loves is to love without expecting any friendship or return of that love at all.
God is sovereign not only over the blessings he brings into your life but the troubles, challenges, headaches, and heartaches that come into your life. They are not punishments. They are the very tools that God uses to cut away the old self and grow the new.
Growing in grace is not comfortable. It is not easy. It is not quick. It is costly. It is time consuming. It means submitting every nook and cranny of your life, your heart, your dreams, your mind, your soul to Christ. It is not something that you do in your spare time, or get around to when it is convenient. It is never convenient. Grace is something God teaches all day, every day. To grow in grace means learning to see life differently. It means learning to see conflicts, hurts, let downs, disappointments, headaches, and heartaches as God given opportunities to grow in grace.
Third,
it means learning to be forgiving. When Charlie Jones and I were thinking of possible titles to give the publisher for Forgiveness Is Tremendous, one of our favorites was “Forgiving Is for Giving.” That play on words highlights one of the key lessons that God wants us learning about forgiveness.
I am a father of three girls. I am a minority in a sorority! One of the goals that my wife and I have as parents is to instill into our girls our values. We want them to be Christ followers because we are Christ followers. We want them to be honest, hardworking, and dependable because we strive to be those things. We want them to be kind, gracious, and forgiving toward others because we are. They are our kids. They represent our family. They represent Mandi and I.
That is why God wants us to give forgiveness. He is our Father and we are His kids. We need to be a community that together strives to forgive without prejudice or regard to cost because we are sons and daughters of the Father who showed that kind of radical grace to us. He wants us to be like Him because we represent His family. We represent Him. Let us represent Him well.
Learning To Be Full Of Grace And Truth. 