SEEING THROUGH THE EYES OF GRACE

A cartoon that appeared in the classic Peanuts Comic strip describes the way most of us tend to do life.

Lucy and Linus are in the living room. Linus is curled up in a chair, quietly reading a book. Lucy is standing behind him, with that “Lucy” like look on her face…

She looks at Linus and this is what she says, “It’s very strange… It’s very strange… It happens just by looking at you…”

Linus responds, “What happens?”

Lucy calmly answers, “I can feel a criticism coming on…”

“I can feel a criticism coming on…”

That accurately describes the way a most of us tend to do life… We’re cynical, critical, judgmental and sometimes down right mean…

Here’s the problem: people will usually rise or fall to the level of your expectations. If we go through life like Lucy – “I can feel a criticism coming on…” - we’ll probably get just what we expect…

What would happen, on the other hand, if we started seeing people through the eyes of grace?

Paul the Apostle wrote a letter to a notorious first century church… Talk about a church with problems, this church had problems that had been “super sized.” This church was jacked up, BIG TIME.

Selfishness, competition, “one-ups-manship”, division, power plays, “me-first mindsets”, immorality and sin were common… The church at Corinth wasn’t the kind of church that gave the pastor a headache; it was the kind of church that puts most pastors into cardiac arrest…

But when Paul wrote to this group of Christians, this is how he began his letter…

1 Corinthians 1:1-2 (ESV), Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,
2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours…

Wow! Stop right there. Paul wrote to this group of messed up, jacked up believers and said, “You guys are CALLED to be saints…”

Paul reminded these believers that they had been “called” by God – that God had initiated contact with them before they ever gave God a second thought… That God had reached out to make them his own…

1 Corinthians 1:3-8 (ESV), Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For fifteen chapters Paul is going to address the issues of sin and disobedience that are completely “out of control” at Corinth… He’s going to deal with these issues head on. By the time he gets through this church is going to feel like they’ve just been hit with an upper cut by Evander Holyfield…

But when Paul begins this letter, he begins by focusing on God’s grace that was so active in the lives of this group of jacked up, messed up people. Paul says, “I want you guys to know that I give thanks to my God always for you, because you guys are recipients of the grace of God… It has affected your speech and your thought life… You don’t lack in any spiritual gift… Furthermore, I know that God is going to sustain you, and ultimately present you guiltless on the day of the Lord Jesus.”

That’s an incredible statement when you consider the resume of the church at Corinth! But somehow, when Paul looked at the church at Corinth he not only saw their quirks, idiosyncrasies, fallen-ness and SIN, he saw God’s GRACE at work in the life of this messed up group of people.

What would change if you started looking at the people in your life through the eyes of grace?

Most of us are a lot like Lucy. But what would happen if we asked God to enable us to start seeing the Linus’s in our life through the eyes of grace?

What if we refused to correct or criticize someone unless we felt a profound sense of love and affection for them, and unless we saw huge potential in them?

Maybe, just maybe, we would be a lot less like Lucy and a lot more like Paul…

Try this experiment. Go for a day without criticizing anything or anyone. See if anybody misses it. I seriously doubt it! You might find that your family, friends and the rest of the world can get along just fine with your profound insight.

In the words of John Maxwell, “It’s just a thought…”