Is it possible that attitude determines latitude?
Is it possible that the reason for Grace as opposed to Law based relationship with God is to create an attitude of cleansing?
Could it be that Jesus can see the motives of the heart and that those motives are what determines forgiveness and being made whole?
Please read Luke 7:36-39
Vs. 36 “When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”
Why was the woman crying?
Could it be that she was broken and that she knew only Jesus could make her whole?
The first step in understanding love is to understand that I need it to make me whole. In and of myself I will show love to get something which is not love at all or I will love “if” which is another fake love. But Jesus was different He just loved.
Was there something He could have gained by loving the thief on the cross?
Funny thing though as soon as the thief spoke a word of truth about Jesus the thief was made whole.
Or how about the group of lepers he healed where only one came back- Could the one that came back given Jesus anything?
My point is that Love the way Jesus talks about it is Love without expecting anything in return.
One more element of the Love here is that if you Love like Jesus some people are not going to like it and they will say bad things about you because you love the “bad” people. To love as Christ Loved is to Love those that no one else will and that only comes from a non-judgmental life grounded in Grace without trying to convert because that is not my job and that is conditional Love. “I Love you but only for a limited time and only if you go to my church” is NOT Love from Christ. People followed Jesus because of that Love which says “I Love you.”
Have a Grace-Full Day!
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