On Giving Grace Matthew 5:42

Theologians call it common grace. God offers certain things to us simply because we're humans. We get gravity, nice weather, beauty. Other things he gives to some more than others, but the criteria for the gift is unknown to us. In this verse, Jesus uses these characteristics of God as a guide and a motivation for our behavior.

Why love your enemies? Because God does. Loving our enemies is something we do because we want to be like God and do what he says. But our natural state, or at least the state we're in between when we're born and when we begin following Jesus, we would never love our neighbors. We love ourselves. Everyone else is on their own at best or they're an obstacle, a hinderance. 

One key difference between a Christ-follower and everyone else is that we watch over those who wouldn't go out of their way for us. Not only did God not kill us when we became his enemy, but he went to all of the trouble of dying on the cross for us. He went out of his way to do what was best for us even when we wouldn't swerve to miss him. 

Do you have the courage to judge your own graciousness today? Mike talks about how giving grace is a challenge for him. Let's be honest and trust Jesus to use us to give grace because of what he did. Thanks for being a follower of One!

Don't forget to check out our partner podcasts, too. They're iWork4Him.com with Jim and Martha Brangenberg, YourFaithatWork.org by Ryan S. Howard, and the Morning Mindset with Carey Green at CareyGreen.com. And let us know about any other podcasts you enjoy listening to. Thanks for being a marketplace minister.