Thought For The Week

Stan had stopped at the store to pick up a few things before he headed home after a hard day at the office. As he stood in line waiting to get checked out, he noticed some of the people standing in line with him. In front of him was a young guy that wore several ear rings, a nose ring and what appeared to be full-body tattoos. Stan thought to himself, “Boy, I’m glad I’m not like this guy.” He also noticed a girl who wore all black, her hair was dyed dark orange and she wore a spiked choker around her neck. Again, Stan thought, “Boy, what a freak! Where do these people come from?” Stan stood there in his polo shirt and nicely pressed slacks and looked very similar to the way that he dressed each time he attended a service of the church. He was very involved with the work of the church; he attended regularly, generously gave of his money and studied his Bible on a regular basis. However, Stan’s [disdain] for other people that were different from him was very noticeable. He often wondered how someone could be so stupid as to get hooked on drugs or wind up in jail. “A bunch of heathens, gonna burn in hell one day,” he often thought to himself when encountering someone who was “un-churched”.

It’s sad to say, but many of us who serve God faithfully may find ourselves with the same mindset as Stan. Because we have not fully matured spiritually, we too feel [disdain] for those who serve the prince of this world. We may even feel superior to them because of our relationship to the Heavenly Father. However, such an attitude is completely contrary to the way God expects us to feel toward the lost. We must have compassion for others just as the “Good Samaritan” (Luke 10:30-37). We must avoid an attitude that is prideful, haughty and one in which we think that we are better than others. We must always remember that, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6). Jesus hung out with people that the religious elite of the day thought of as scum of the earth, but Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Mark 2:17). If we are going to share Jesus with others in the community, we have to get our noses out of the air and put our hearts on the line. Then and only then will we have real compassion for those who don’t have the Lord in their lives. I heard it said this way, “There are two types of sinners, those who have been forgiven and those that haven’t.”

Jay Launius – 2021 Maud church of Christ Maud, Texas