Warts And All

“Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God” (Romans 15:7).

These are powerful, sobering words when you think about it.  How did Jesus accept us?  He accepted us with all of our failings, weaknesses, and insecurities.  He welcomed us when we were a mess.  We didn’t have to clean ourselves up to a certain standard of acceptableness.  We didn’t have to have all of our “ducks in a row.”  Paul said it this way: “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Romans 5:6–10).

Did you catch that?  God seeks a relationship with us while we are “helpless”, “ungodly”, “sinners”, and “enemies”.  It doesn’t sound like we bring much of worth to the bargaining table.  Is God content to leave us in such a pitiful state?  Of course not.  Through the work of His Spirit he works to transform us into the image of Christ.  He desires for us to be so much more.  But that doesn’t change the fact that He accepts us as we are, warts and all.

So that is our model for accepting each other in the body of Christ.  Sounds like a tall order, doesn’t it?  Frankly, most of us think the church would be a much better place if everyone was more like us.  We have our unwritten standards of acceptability.  But “I’ll accept you if…” is not acceptable if I am committed to accepting you as Christ accepts me.

God loves you!

Mike