Patient In Love? September 17, 2011
Suppose for a moment that in a flash of insight you discovered that all your motives for ministry were essentially egocentric, or suppose that last night you got drunk and committed adultery, or suppose that you failed to respond to a cry for help and the person committed suicide. What would you do?
Would guilt, self-condemnation, and self-hatred consume you, or would you jump into the water and swim a hundred yards at breakneck speed towards Jesus? Haunted by feelings of unworthiness, would you allow the darkness to overcome you, or would you let Jesus be who he is - a Savior of boundless compassion and infinite patience, a Lover who keeps no score of our wrongs?
John seems to be saying that the disciples of Jesus ran to him because they were crazy about him; or, in the more restrained prose of Raymond Brown, "Jesus was remembered as one who exhibited love in what he did and was loved deeply by those who followed him."
The beloved disciple sends a message both to the sinner covered with shame and to the local church tentative and slow to forgive for fear of appearing lax or liberal. The number of people who have fled the church because it is too patient or compassionate is negligible; the number who have fled because they find it too unforgiving is tragic.
Brennan Manning
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.~1 Corinthians 13: 4-5.
Where have you seen God's grace in your life today?