Leave Jesus out of
this we are playing cards. Hailee and I love to play cards and it’s normal for
us to have get together with friends and play cards. Jokingly while playing a
tough game of cards and trying to win someone said something along the lines of
forget about the grace of Jesus were playing cards. It was funny and joking but
in real life situations sometimes we forget about Jesus’s grace and get wrapped
into judging.
There was a story
about a church that once was wronged. This one church paid for a service to be
done by a company and looked forward to having this complete to improve the
church, but the person changed the deal. The original deal was pay for the
service 50 percent up front and the rest at completion. The business owner went
up to the church and said before the finished product was done, they needed
more money to complete the project. The
church paid the person the rest of the money.
Soon after that, the
job wasn’t completed to a satisfactory mark. The job wasn’t done. When the church
tried to contact this man, the man stopped returning phone calls, they would
only answer when called from an unknown number. A shady business deal, what was
the church to do? Should a loving church file charges against this business man
that wrong them?
1 Corinthians 6
spends the first 11 verses talking about judging others and handling matters in
a Christian way. The church people were taking lawsuits to courts against other
Christians. Paul stated how wrong this was. He stated its better to be wronged
and cheated then to do the likewise to brothers and sisters in faith. He ends talking
about who will inherit the kingdom of God with verse 11…
“And that is what
some of you were. But you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
We were sanctified by
Jesus. Sanctify means to be set apart for special use or purpose. When we get
stuck in matters that go to court especially if we are in the wrong, we are not
living the sanctified life Jesus gave us.
Jesus gave us life,
grace, mercy and peace. He never wanted us to put court cases against other
Christians. Hopefully matters can be resolved that even though we have to obey
the laws of the land Romans 13:1. Grace needs to be shown in every matter and
that is what Jesus gives each and every one of us. Have a great day.
