Previous Post – Forgiving As We’ve Been Forgiven

Over the last week I have been working on revisions for my book on the Sermon on the Mount.  The following is a short excerpt that I thought I would share with you all.

“When we have become the community of the Beatitudes, not only are we meant to have hearts transformed by God’s grace and mercy (thus free from such things as hatred), but our primary responsibility is to be the preserving salt and life giving light to others.  In other words, even at our own expense, whether we are in the right or the wrong, our first priority is to guard the other person from the corruption of sin, bringing life instead through acts of humility, generosity and grace.  That He calls us to do so even before we come before Him in worship, something far more significant to the Jewish people than it is to most of us today, underlines the deep significance and importance this kind of commitment is.  For as we do this, resisting the impulse to accuse, to defend and to justify, we instead demonstrate the fulfillment of God’s intention and allow the shalom of His kingdom to break through just a little bit more.  Perhaps this is what Jesus meant in John 15:13 when He said ‘Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends’.  While clearly a foreshadow of His own sacrifice for us on the cross, I cannot help but believe that He also meant that in the indivisible commitment to love God and others, every part of our life (even unto death) must be given up for the sake of God’s mission to the world.  This is what it means to love our neighbors as ourselves.”