The living archive is loading.
Part 8 of 20How to Get Right with God
Understanding Romans: From Doctrine to Devotion
Continue exploring
Connected by scripture or shared themes.
Part 8 of 20How to Get Right with God
Understanding Romans: From Doctrine to Devotion
Continue exploring
Connected by scripture or shared themes.
We're going through a letter written by Paul to a local church in Rome. It is the most concise and well-articulated and exhaustive explanation of the gospel. Paul does thorough due diligence to explain with clarity what Christians believe, what our doctrine is, and what the gospel truly is.
Paul spends chapters 1-11 explaining theology and doctrine. Then he gets to chapter 12 and transitions from doctrine to devotion—moving into application. Many Bibles have a heading at this point: "Marks of Maturity." These are the natural byproducts and results of someone who has entrusted their life to God and fully surrendered to the lordship of Jesus Christ. These aren't requirements as much as they are the natural outflow of a transformed life.
Paul begins with that iconic statement: "Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Scripture causes us to reconsider things. God asks: Is there anything in my conduct, behavior, opinions, assumptions, or worldview that I need to reconsider? Are there any blind spots developing that need attention?
We must carry into these conversations sincere humility and openness to allowing God to instruct us. There will be times when we discover through scripture that we were wrong or approaching a situation unproductively. The mistake is to fall into condemnation rather than embrace conviction. As a church, we do not exist to get shame on people. We exist to get shame off of people.
We view the Bible more like a mirror than a mallet. As one quote says, "If the only tool you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail." We can run through life hammering folks with God's word rather than doing our own due diligence and staring deeply into scripture, asking, "God, is there anything in my life?"
There's always pressure to conform to trends and patterns around us. Here are patterns I recognize in culture and society that, as the people of God, we should pay attention to:
These are things that, when I sit down and journal in my own prayer time, land on my radar as areas God may be calling us to reconsider.
The key distinction Paul emphasizes is knowing the difference between preferences and convictions. Preferences are rooted in your taste; convictions are rooted in God's truth. It's less about what you like and more about what scripture informs.
We all have preferences, desires, and opinions about what we'd prefer to see. The challenge is that we can mismanage our energy by stationing ourselves on the wrong battlefields. As Christians, we must identify what is a preference and what is a conviction—something that, despite pressure, popularity, or cultural affirmation or disdain, we need to stay rooted in. If you don't clarify your convictions in relation to your preferences, you can mismanage your role within society.
Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another. For he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law. The commandments, do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet, and whatever other commandment there may be are summed up in this one rule: Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of law.
The temptation in our times is: How do we live rooted in our convictions, anchored in our values, and contending for our faith in a way that's persuasive but not abrasive? How do we engage firmly in what we believe without being hateful? Paul says it must be clothed in love.
Some people take verse 8's "let no debt remain outstanding" to mean Scripture forbids all debt. That would be a misinterpretation. Throughout the Old Testament, God's economy for Israel includes instructions on lending and borrowing. Paul isn't saying God forbids debt; he's saying debt is something we shouldn't mismanage.
The fault comes when someone borrows money and doesn't honor their word by paying it back as committed. When a Christian does this, it comes at the expense of all our credibility. So Paul is saying: If you borrow, honor your word and fulfill your commitment.
But there is a debt that we have, anchored in the cross. This reality means: No matter what we do, we can wake up every single day and do the best we possibly can to live as a pure and genuine reflection of God's love. Yet we'll never be able to match God's love for us.
God showed up and extended amazing, life-altering, mesmerizing love. We wake up every day with the opportunity to live as a reflection of that. But in all reality, we can never pay it back. So we embrace the opportunity to pay it forward. Paul says: Would you love your neighbor as yourself? This is a mark of maturity—the person who has sincerely devoted their life to Jesus moves throughout the world reflecting God's love and loving those around them well.
A professor once said that in your faith journey, most people go through two conversions. (This isn't saying you need to be saved twice to go to heaven—that would be bad theology.) Here's what he meant:
Your first conversion is when you discover God's love for you. You stare deeply into the cross and realize he did that for me. It's not until you understand the cross was done by you that you discover all the cross has done for you.
You realize: He split the skies, came on a rescue mission, left his perfection, stepped into my brokenness, gave me his righteousness, and took on my filthy rags. He stood in my place, paid the ultimate price—all so he could bridge the chasm and I could have eternal life with my heavenly Father forever in harmony. Not because I earned it or achieved some level of righteousness, but out of the goodness of who he is. That's how wonderful he is.
Your first conversion leads you to think: If he gave his all for me, why would I not give my all for him? That's where you receive salvation.
The second conversion is discovering God's love for the world. There comes a point where you must graduate from self-centeredness and stop viewing everything through the lens of you and God's desire for you. You start to realize that God's desire and plan for your life is connected to his plan for somebody else's life.
One of the best things you can do for yourself is to do something for someone else. The moment you discover God's love for the world in the same way you discovered his love for you—and it changed your life forever—that changes your entire approach to life. That is life-altering.
When you discover that he loves your family members, your neighbors, your enemies, and those at odds with you just as much as he loves you—that he loves those in the faith and those who are wandering and lost dearly—the true believer lives with an aching heart, praying: "God, would you break my heart for the things that break your heart? Would you make me aware daily that eternity still hangs in the balance for some folks? And for whatever reason, I get the opportunity to participate in your mission where I can be a conduit of hope, joy, love, peace, purpose, and meaning for those around me."
It's learning to wake up every single day saying: "I have a mandate. If Jesus is Lord and King, I follow his marching orders." And one of the clearest marching orders is to love your neighbor as yourself—to love your neighbor the same way you love yourself personally.
Jesus knew that if he could get people to live beyond themselves and love other people the same way they love and treat themselves, he would flip the world upside down.
We live in times where there's an emphasis on, reward for, celebration of, and endorsement of living narcissistically. Living self-centered gets rewarded, and what gets rewarded gets repeated. We see individuals succumbing to very self-centered lives. But Scripture says: If you are a follower of Christ, you recognize you aren't the center of the world. You take yourself off that throne. Christ is the center, and you live as a reflection of him. That means loving your neighbor as yourself.
Have you ever thought about how you love yourself and how that compares to how you treat other people? Church ought to be the most honest place on the planet. Consider where there are inconsistencies in our own lives—ways we love ourselves that we don't extend consistently to others:
Every time we make a mistake, we immediately know why and have a reason and excuse. Whatever excuse we have is justifiable. Yet when we see other people make mistakes, we don't carry grace in our back pocket. We're ready to hold them to it. We love keeping score with others, but we don't do that to ourselves. We recognize we're imperfect and will make mistakes, yet when someone else who is also imperfect makes a mistake, we're not as quick to forgive them. That's an inconsistency.
We're aware of times inconvenient for us, times that run against our preferences, when things are uncomfortable. We prioritize our comfort through those things. Yet we walk by people every single day facing trials and inconvenient situations, never really considering: Should I be prioritizing their comfort and well-being just as much as I prioritize my own?
Anytime we do something, we believe we have a pure motive. Yet anytime someone does something we dislike or don't understand, we assume they have bad motives. This is a great way to destroy your relationships. It seems hardwired in our human nature that the moment we don't understand someone's conduct, we make poor assumptions about their character. This disrupts marriages, harms relationships with our children, and destroys friendships.
When we started this message, we talked about fighting to maintain healthy, vibrant relationships with other bodies of believers and churches—not falling into the trend of attacking other communities of faith. I've noticed some of my friends who didn't take the same approach I did last week—people I love dearly, wonderful leaders, godly individuals with great ministries who represent God's word well—get beat up over it.
One friend pastored his church for 25 years. Last week was their 25-year anniversary. For months, his team planned to celebrate with special guests, programming, and videos—things we're also doing as we prepare for our 45-year celebration. They had to decide: Do we take a stand on certain issues or run the play the team worked hard to execute? They chose their celebration. That wonderful church got beat up. We are making character assumptions and assuming the worst of people's motives. We don't do that to ourselves. We shouldn't do that to other people.
We go through life often passing people in significant pain. When was the last time you intentionally leaned in to a person enduring pain and said, "I want to do whatever I can to help you and aid you through this season"? That's how we love ourselves. Scripture says that's how you should love your neighbor.
All of these are things we do for ourselves. Scripture asks: What would it look like for us as Christians to humbly and courageously ask: Am I inconsistent? Do I love myself better than I love those around me? God, would you awaken my heart and make me aware of the inconsistencies in my life?
It's not to beat us up, but to open our eyes. Conviction is less about God hammering you over the head telling you how bad you are, and more about God tapping you on the shoulder saying, "Hey, I created you for more."
God has hardwired within every single one of us a capacity for goodness. He has instilled in you giftings, talents, passions, and different skill sets. There is more good in you than you probably realize. Sometimes we go through life—whether unintentionally, lackadaisically, or through self-loathing and lacking confidence—not realizing that there's more good in you than you think.
You may be throwing away opportunity when God is saying, "Hey, would you just give a little bit of intentionality and would you see what more I have instilled in you?" Would you love your neighbor as yourself? Would you live every single day on the lookout for who God is going to put in your life where you have the opportunity to be Jesus with some skin on?
That's what a Christian ought to be. Many of us are thankful for the times that Jesus showed up with some skin on through somebody else. I came stumbling out of a club during spring break in Panama City Beach, Florida, heading in the wrong direction with the wrong people for the wrong reasons. But there were Christian kids giving free rides to knuckleheads like myself, and God still got it right. Can we have the ability to say, "God, I want to live as that type of reflection for you"?
This statement—"love your neighbor as yourself"—is not new to Paul. It's echoed throughout Scripture and is found in the words of Christ himself. When Jesus was asked "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He pointed back to the law and asked, "How do you read it?"
Before you jump on ChatGPT, Google, or solicit feedback from friends on social media, ask yourself: What does God's word say? As believers, we trust Scripture as a source of truth and wisdom. We clarify our lives through the lens of God's word.
The expert in the law answered correctly: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus replied, "You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live."
But the expert wanted to justify himself and asked, "And who is my neighbor?" In reply, Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan.
A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers, and they stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too a Levite when he came to the place and saw him passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan as he traveled came where the man was. And when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him, bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. "Look after him," he said. "And when I return I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have." Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?
The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." And Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
The man had the right answer, but he had the wrong application. The question for all of us this week is: Where are the times in my life where I'm walking around with the right answers, yet I'm not rightly applying them to my life?
He asked, "Who is my neighbor?" because whenever God asks us to do something that runs against the grain of our desires, preferences, or comfort, we suddenly start to look for loopholes. If we can find a loophole to justify our disobedience, we can say no to what God is instructing us to do.
Jesus doesn't so much answer the question "Who is your neighbor?" as he answers the question "What is a neighbor?" What should a neighbor marked by the gospel do? A neighbor is not simply someone who lives on the same road as you. A neighbor is someone you come in contact with on the road you're traveling throughout life.
The man was looking for justification—permission to not consider everybody as his neighbor because there are certain people he didn't want to love. Have you ever drawn boundaries around God's heart? We do the same thing with God's grace and compassion. We go through life thinking we are the ones who get to make the judgment call: they're in, they're out. God's for those kind of people. He's not for those kind of people. It is super problematic.
Jesus takes a wrecking ball to that mentality. He tells a story where two religious individuals, a priest and a Levite, see the man who is half dead and walk by on the other side. Then comes a Samaritan who sees it differently.
This is a matter of perspective. Is the glass half full or half empty? Two people saw an individual who was half dead, but the Samaritan sees a man who's half alive. He says, "Hey, this guy still has breath in his lungs."
I say to you: If you're not dead, God's not done. If you're still breathing, there's still hope and opportunity for God to do amazing things in and through every person's life.
What's amazing is that Jesus makes a Samaritan the hero of the story, which would have been highly taboo and provocative to those hearing it. The expert in the law, steeped in religion and proud of his Jewish heritage, would have hated Samaritans. The tension between Jews and Samaritans was longstanding.
The Jews despised them for two reasons. First, they viewed them as heretics and idolators subscribing to a different form of religion. Second, they despised them for racial reasons—Samaritans were the byproduct of people stepping outside the Jewish bloodline and mixing with other ethnicities, and there was disdain for that.
Jesus brings an individual into the story whom the Jewish community would have looked at and thought, "That's a bad guy." And Jesus makes a bad guy the good guy. The question is: Are we okay with those type of situations? Are we open to the fact that God might be so redemptive, so gracefilled, that he still might be in the business of turning people who were the bad guys into good guys?
Paul first shows up on the scene giving approval to Stephen's murder, then persecutes Christians and tries to stomp out the Christian faith. Bad guy who becomes one of the co-authors in Scripture. Good guy. Do we believe that God has that type of ability? Do we honestly live marked by that type of love—that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us?
While you and I were in the bad guy category, God said, "I can do something redemptive in their life." God met you and me on our broken road, though we were heading in the wrong direction, filled with all kinds of things in contradiction and violation to God's desire. And he said, "I'm still for them. I still love them. I still want to do something in their life."
For those of us who entrusted our lives to God's tender care, we experienced his redemptive ability to rescue, redeem, and change every single one of us. Not because we're that impressive, not because we've manufactured our own righteousness, but because of the grace of God. We went from the bad category to the good category.
Jesus is saying, "Yeah, go and do likewise. Go and find people on the broken road who are down and out, marked by the terrors of this life, marked by pain, marked by inconvenience, left in situations that seem absolutely hopeless, and step in with faith. Step in as a representative of God. Step in on mission."
My God is for you, folks. There are people who you can't stand who God loves just as much as he loves you. This runs against the grain. It creates discomfort. And that's okay.
Here's a question I ask about this story: Who do we want to be in the story? Obviously, the answer is the Good Samaritan. That's the right answer, but it's not the real answer.
We for sure don't want to be the priest and the Levite—the religious people whose beliefs don't line up with their behavior. We don't want to be those guys. But we also don't want to be the Samaritan. It comes with too much sacrifice, too much risk, too much cost.
If we're honest, most people want to be the innkeeper. "Someone else go out there and find broken and hurting people, people who are just lost and without hope, and bring them into this safe space. I will then take care of them in proper context with proper resourcing." That's the real answer. We would all rather be an innkeeper than the Good Samaritan.
But those who have encountered Jesus Christ as the living savior have been forever changed. What they've seen, they cannot unsee. Christ split the skies to rescue and redeem anyone who would confess their sins and his lordship and acknowledge that what he did on the cross was enough. They will be saved. And you and I get to be a reflection of that outstanding love.
This guy in the parable is getting exposed for self-righteousness. He thinks he's got it figured out. He thinks he's the expert. He thinks he can stand and test the Savior of the world.
Know this: Jesus didn't come for people with self-righteousness. He came for people with self-awareness. Not, "I'm perfect," but, "God, I need your work in my life. God, there's still some things I'm still trying to figure out. There's so much room for improvement. I am inconsistent in this area. I do at times fall to the pressures of this world. I do conform to the silly patterns around me. I am not as intentional living out my faith for you as I could be."
Take that truth and don't let it manifest into unproductive shame—that comes from the pit of hell. Let it spark a fire in your belly, putting some gusto within your soul to say, "Ah, I'm going to go out there and I'm going to win the next one."
If you coach kids in sports, what you're really doing is teaching them to win a possession. Just win the next one. If you try to think about the whole game as a whole, sometimes you miss it.
"Hey, we're going to go out there and we're going to win this defensive possession. And then we're going to come down and we're going to run the play as we've been working on and we're going to win the next possession. And every single one of you is going to own your assignment and you're going to stop your guy and you're going to box out and you're going to rebound and you're going to play defense. Just win the next one."
Can you stack some small wins? Can you get out there on the road you're traveling on and just start stacking wins? None of us can save the world. But the good news is we don't have to. We just get to incrementally be a representation to individuals as we come in contact with them.
This is what Jesus calls me to do and how I should live. It shouldn't come with shame, but it should come with some passion. "Lord, would you help me love people? Would God, would you give me that almost second conversion? Would you truly break my heart for the things that break your heart? Would you help me see other people?"
Right now we're doing really well in our culture demonizing people. That's easy. It's easy to see someone who's half dead. It takes a person of faith to see someone who's half alive. God, I still believe you're in the business of moving people from the bad category to the good category.
As someone who's experienced it myself, I just want to pay it forward because I could never pay it back. This is a debt we can never repay.
Maybe just give some consideration this week: How are you loving the next person? And does it look like Jesus? Are there some courageous questions you could be asking and evaluating as you live as a representative of Christ in our community and the world that we live in?
You've got more goodness in you and God's given you a capacity to live as a reflection of him. So go out there and do it. Live likewise, just as we read in Scripture.
We're going through a letter written by Paul to a local church in Rome. It is the most concise and well-articulated and exhaustive explanation of the gospel. Paul does thorough due diligence to explain with clarity what Christians believe, what our doctrine is, and what the gospel truly is.
Paul spends chapters 1-11 explaining theology and doctrine. Then he gets to chapter 12 and transitions from doctrine to devotion—moving into application. Many Bibles have a heading at this point: "Marks of Maturity." These are the natural byproducts and results of someone who has entrusted their life to God and fully surrendered to the lordship of Jesus Christ. These aren't requirements as much as they are the natural outflow of a transformed life.
Paul begins with that iconic statement: "Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Scripture causes us to reconsider things. God asks: Is there anything in my conduct, behavior, opinions, assumptions, or worldview that I need to reconsider? Are there any blind spots developing that need attention?
We must carry into these conversations sincere humility and openness to allowing God to instruct us. There will be times when we discover through scripture that we were wrong or approaching a situation unproductively. The mistake is to fall into condemnation rather than embrace conviction. As a church, we do not exist to get shame on people. We exist to get shame off of people.
We view the Bible more like a mirror than a mallet. As one quote says, "If the only tool you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail." We can run through life hammering folks with God's word rather than doing our own due diligence and staring deeply into scripture, asking, "God, is there anything in my life?"
There's always pressure to conform to trends and patterns around us. Here are patterns I recognize in culture and society that, as the people of God, we should pay attention to:
These are things that, when I sit down and journal in my own prayer time, land on my radar as areas God may be calling us to reconsider.
The key distinction Paul emphasizes is knowing the difference between preferences and convictions. Preferences are rooted in your taste; convictions are rooted in God's truth. It's less about what you like and more about what scripture informs.
We all have preferences, desires, and opinions about what we'd prefer to see. The challenge is that we can mismanage our energy by stationing ourselves on the wrong battlefields. As Christians, we must identify what is a preference and what is a conviction—something that, despite pressure, popularity, or cultural affirmation or disdain, we need to stay rooted in. If you don't clarify your convictions in relation to your preferences, you can mismanage your role within society.
Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another. For he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law. The commandments, do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet, and whatever other commandment there may be are summed up in this one rule: Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of law.
The temptation in our times is: How do we live rooted in our convictions, anchored in our values, and contending for our faith in a way that's persuasive but not abrasive? How do we engage firmly in what we believe without being hateful? Paul says it must be clothed in love.
Some people take verse 8's "let no debt remain outstanding" to mean Scripture forbids all debt. That would be a misinterpretation. Throughout the Old Testament, God's economy for Israel includes instructions on lending and borrowing. Paul isn't saying God forbids debt; he's saying debt is something we shouldn't mismanage.
The fault comes when someone borrows money and doesn't honor their word by paying it back as committed. When a Christian does this, it comes at the expense of all our credibility. So Paul is saying: If you borrow, honor your word and fulfill your commitment.
But there is a debt that we have, anchored in the cross. This reality means: No matter what we do, we can wake up every single day and do the best we possibly can to live as a pure and genuine reflection of God's love. Yet we'll never be able to match God's love for us.
God showed up and extended amazing, life-altering, mesmerizing love. We wake up every day with the opportunity to live as a reflection of that. But in all reality, we can never pay it back. So we embrace the opportunity to pay it forward. Paul says: Would you love your neighbor as yourself? This is a mark of maturity—the person who has sincerely devoted their life to Jesus moves throughout the world reflecting God's love and loving those around them well.
A professor once said that in your faith journey, most people go through two conversions. (This isn't saying you need to be saved twice to go to heaven—that would be bad theology.) Here's what he meant:
Your first conversion is when you discover God's love for you. You stare deeply into the cross and realize he did that for me. It's not until you understand the cross was done by you that you discover all the cross has done for you.
You realize: He split the skies, came on a rescue mission, left his perfection, stepped into my brokenness, gave me his righteousness, and took on my filthy rags. He stood in my place, paid the ultimate price—all so he could bridge the chasm and I could have eternal life with my heavenly Father forever in harmony. Not because I earned it or achieved some level of righteousness, but out of the goodness of who he is. That's how wonderful he is.
Your first conversion leads you to think: If he gave his all for me, why would I not give my all for him? That's where you receive salvation.
The second conversion is discovering God's love for the world. There comes a point where you must graduate from self-centeredness and stop viewing everything through the lens of you and God's desire for you. You start to realize that God's desire and plan for your life is connected to his plan for somebody else's life.
One of the best things you can do for yourself is to do something for someone else. The moment you discover God's love for the world in the same way you discovered his love for you—and it changed your life forever—that changes your entire approach to life. That is life-altering.
When you discover that he loves your family members, your neighbors, your enemies, and those at odds with you just as much as he loves you—that he loves those in the faith and those who are wandering and lost dearly—the true believer lives with an aching heart, praying: "God, would you break my heart for the things that break your heart? Would you make me aware daily that eternity still hangs in the balance for some folks? And for whatever reason, I get the opportunity to participate in your mission where I can be a conduit of hope, joy, love, peace, purpose, and meaning for those around me."
It's learning to wake up every single day saying: "I have a mandate. If Jesus is Lord and King, I follow his marching orders." And one of the clearest marching orders is to love your neighbor as yourself—to love your neighbor the same way you love yourself personally.
Jesus knew that if he could get people to live beyond themselves and love other people the same way they love and treat themselves, he would flip the world upside down.
We live in times where there's an emphasis on, reward for, celebration of, and endorsement of living narcissistically. Living self-centered gets rewarded, and what gets rewarded gets repeated. We see individuals succumbing to very self-centered lives. But Scripture says: If you are a follower of Christ, you recognize you aren't the center of the world. You take yourself off that throne. Christ is the center, and you live as a reflection of him. That means loving your neighbor as yourself.
Have you ever thought about how you love yourself and how that compares to how you treat other people? Church ought to be the most honest place on the planet. Consider where there are inconsistencies in our own lives—ways we love ourselves that we don't extend consistently to others:
Every time we make a mistake, we immediately know why and have a reason and excuse. Whatever excuse we have is justifiable. Yet when we see other people make mistakes, we don't carry grace in our back pocket. We're ready to hold them to it. We love keeping score with others, but we don't do that to ourselves. We recognize we're imperfect and will make mistakes, yet when someone else who is also imperfect makes a mistake, we're not as quick to forgive them. That's an inconsistency.
We're aware of times inconvenient for us, times that run against our preferences, when things are uncomfortable. We prioritize our comfort through those things. Yet we walk by people every single day facing trials and inconvenient situations, never really considering: Should I be prioritizing their comfort and well-being just as much as I prioritize my own?
Anytime we do something, we believe we have a pure motive. Yet anytime someone does something we dislike or don't understand, we assume they have bad motives. This is a great way to destroy your relationships. It seems hardwired in our human nature that the moment we don't understand someone's conduct, we make poor assumptions about their character. This disrupts marriages, harms relationships with our children, and destroys friendships.
When we started this message, we talked about fighting to maintain healthy, vibrant relationships with other bodies of believers and churches—not falling into the trend of attacking other communities of faith. I've noticed some of my friends who didn't take the same approach I did last week—people I love dearly, wonderful leaders, godly individuals with great ministries who represent God's word well—get beat up over it.
One friend pastored his church for 25 years. Last week was their 25-year anniversary. For months, his team planned to celebrate with special guests, programming, and videos—things we're also doing as we prepare for our 45-year celebration. They had to decide: Do we take a stand on certain issues or run the play the team worked hard to execute? They chose their celebration. That wonderful church got beat up. We are making character assumptions and assuming the worst of people's motives. We don't do that to ourselves. We shouldn't do that to other people.
We go through life often passing people in significant pain. When was the last time you intentionally leaned in to a person enduring pain and said, "I want to do whatever I can to help you and aid you through this season"? That's how we love ourselves. Scripture says that's how you should love your neighbor.
All of these are things we do for ourselves. Scripture asks: What would it look like for us as Christians to humbly and courageously ask: Am I inconsistent? Do I love myself better than I love those around me? God, would you awaken my heart and make me aware of the inconsistencies in my life?
It's not to beat us up, but to open our eyes. Conviction is less about God hammering you over the head telling you how bad you are, and more about God tapping you on the shoulder saying, "Hey, I created you for more."
God has hardwired within every single one of us a capacity for goodness. He has instilled in you giftings, talents, passions, and different skill sets. There is more good in you than you probably realize. Sometimes we go through life—whether unintentionally, lackadaisically, or through self-loathing and lacking confidence—not realizing that there's more good in you than you think.
You may be throwing away opportunity when God is saying, "Hey, would you just give a little bit of intentionality and would you see what more I have instilled in you?" Would you love your neighbor as yourself? Would you live every single day on the lookout for who God is going to put in your life where you have the opportunity to be Jesus with some skin on?
That's what a Christian ought to be. Many of us are thankful for the times that Jesus showed up with some skin on through somebody else. I came stumbling out of a club during spring break in Panama City Beach, Florida, heading in the wrong direction with the wrong people for the wrong reasons. But there were Christian kids giving free rides to knuckleheads like myself, and God still got it right. Can we have the ability to say, "God, I want to live as that type of reflection for you"?
This statement—"love your neighbor as yourself"—is not new to Paul. It's echoed throughout Scripture and is found in the words of Christ himself. When Jesus was asked "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He pointed back to the law and asked, "How do you read it?"
Before you jump on ChatGPT, Google, or solicit feedback from friends on social media, ask yourself: What does God's word say? As believers, we trust Scripture as a source of truth and wisdom. We clarify our lives through the lens of God's word.
The expert in the law answered correctly: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus replied, "You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live."
But the expert wanted to justify himself and asked, "And who is my neighbor?" In reply, Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan.
A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers, and they stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too a Levite when he came to the place and saw him passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan as he traveled came where the man was. And when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him, bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. "Look after him," he said. "And when I return I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have." Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?
The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." And Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
The man had the right answer, but he had the wrong application. The question for all of us this week is: Where are the times in my life where I'm walking around with the right answers, yet I'm not rightly applying them to my life?
He asked, "Who is my neighbor?" because whenever God asks us to do something that runs against the grain of our desires, preferences, or comfort, we suddenly start to look for loopholes. If we can find a loophole to justify our disobedience, we can say no to what God is instructing us to do.
Jesus doesn't so much answer the question "Who is your neighbor?" as he answers the question "What is a neighbor?" What should a neighbor marked by the gospel do? A neighbor is not simply someone who lives on the same road as you. A neighbor is someone you come in contact with on the road you're traveling throughout life.
The man was looking for justification—permission to not consider everybody as his neighbor because there are certain people he didn't want to love. Have you ever drawn boundaries around God's heart? We do the same thing with God's grace and compassion. We go through life thinking we are the ones who get to make the judgment call: they're in, they're out. God's for those kind of people. He's not for those kind of people. It is super problematic.
Jesus takes a wrecking ball to that mentality. He tells a story where two religious individuals, a priest and a Levite, see the man who is half dead and walk by on the other side. Then comes a Samaritan who sees it differently.
This is a matter of perspective. Is the glass half full or half empty? Two people saw an individual who was half dead, but the Samaritan sees a man who's half alive. He says, "Hey, this guy still has breath in his lungs."
I say to you: If you're not dead, God's not done. If you're still breathing, there's still hope and opportunity for God to do amazing things in and through every person's life.
What's amazing is that Jesus makes a Samaritan the hero of the story, which would have been highly taboo and provocative to those hearing it. The expert in the law, steeped in religion and proud of his Jewish heritage, would have hated Samaritans. The tension between Jews and Samaritans was longstanding.
The Jews despised them for two reasons. First, they viewed them as heretics and idolators subscribing to a different form of religion. Second, they despised them for racial reasons—Samaritans were the byproduct of people stepping outside the Jewish bloodline and mixing with other ethnicities, and there was disdain for that.
Jesus brings an individual into the story whom the Jewish community would have looked at and thought, "That's a bad guy." And Jesus makes a bad guy the good guy. The question is: Are we okay with those type of situations? Are we open to the fact that God might be so redemptive, so gracefilled, that he still might be in the business of turning people who were the bad guys into good guys?
Paul first shows up on the scene giving approval to Stephen's murder, then persecutes Christians and tries to stomp out the Christian faith. Bad guy who becomes one of the co-authors in Scripture. Good guy. Do we believe that God has that type of ability? Do we honestly live marked by that type of love—that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us?
While you and I were in the bad guy category, God said, "I can do something redemptive in their life." God met you and me on our broken road, though we were heading in the wrong direction, filled with all kinds of things in contradiction and violation to God's desire. And he said, "I'm still for them. I still love them. I still want to do something in their life."
For those of us who entrusted our lives to God's tender care, we experienced his redemptive ability to rescue, redeem, and change every single one of us. Not because we're that impressive, not because we've manufactured our own righteousness, but because of the grace of God. We went from the bad category to the good category.
Jesus is saying, "Yeah, go and do likewise. Go and find people on the broken road who are down and out, marked by the terrors of this life, marked by pain, marked by inconvenience, left in situations that seem absolutely hopeless, and step in with faith. Step in as a representative of God. Step in on mission."
My God is for you, folks. There are people who you can't stand who God loves just as much as he loves you. This runs against the grain. It creates discomfort. And that's okay.
Here's a question I ask about this story: Who do we want to be in the story? Obviously, the answer is the Good Samaritan. That's the right answer, but it's not the real answer.
We for sure don't want to be the priest and the Levite—the religious people whose beliefs don't line up with their behavior. We don't want to be those guys. But we also don't want to be the Samaritan. It comes with too much sacrifice, too much risk, too much cost.
If we're honest, most people want to be the innkeeper. "Someone else go out there and find broken and hurting people, people who are just lost and without hope, and bring them into this safe space. I will then take care of them in proper context with proper resourcing." That's the real answer. We would all rather be an innkeeper than the Good Samaritan.
But those who have encountered Jesus Christ as the living savior have been forever changed. What they've seen, they cannot unsee. Christ split the skies to rescue and redeem anyone who would confess their sins and his lordship and acknowledge that what he did on the cross was enough. They will be saved. And you and I get to be a reflection of that outstanding love.
This guy in the parable is getting exposed for self-righteousness. He thinks he's got it figured out. He thinks he's the expert. He thinks he can stand and test the Savior of the world.
Know this: Jesus didn't come for people with self-righteousness. He came for people with self-awareness. Not, "I'm perfect," but, "God, I need your work in my life. God, there's still some things I'm still trying to figure out. There's so much room for improvement. I am inconsistent in this area. I do at times fall to the pressures of this world. I do conform to the silly patterns around me. I am not as intentional living out my faith for you as I could be."
Take that truth and don't let it manifest into unproductive shame—that comes from the pit of hell. Let it spark a fire in your belly, putting some gusto within your soul to say, "Ah, I'm going to go out there and I'm going to win the next one."
If you coach kids in sports, what you're really doing is teaching them to win a possession. Just win the next one. If you try to think about the whole game as a whole, sometimes you miss it.
"Hey, we're going to go out there and we're going to win this defensive possession. And then we're going to come down and we're going to run the play as we've been working on and we're going to win the next possession. And every single one of you is going to own your assignment and you're going to stop your guy and you're going to box out and you're going to rebound and you're going to play defense. Just win the next one."
Can you stack some small wins? Can you get out there on the road you're traveling on and just start stacking wins? None of us can save the world. But the good news is we don't have to. We just get to incrementally be a representation to individuals as we come in contact with them.
This is what Jesus calls me to do and how I should live. It shouldn't come with shame, but it should come with some passion. "Lord, would you help me love people? Would God, would you give me that almost second conversion? Would you truly break my heart for the things that break your heart? Would you help me see other people?"
Right now we're doing really well in our culture demonizing people. That's easy. It's easy to see someone who's half dead. It takes a person of faith to see someone who's half alive. God, I still believe you're in the business of moving people from the bad category to the good category.
As someone who's experienced it myself, I just want to pay it forward because I could never pay it back. This is a debt we can never repay.
Maybe just give some consideration this week: How are you loving the next person? And does it look like Jesus? Are there some courageous questions you could be asking and evaluating as you live as a representative of Christ in our community and the world that we live in?
You've got more goodness in you and God's given you a capacity to live as a reflection of him. So go out there and do it. Live likewise, just as we read in Scripture.
