Christians are commanded to be different.
If you’re a non-Christian, you may look at Christians and think the difference must have something to do with voting a certain way or maybe spending Sundays a certain way or condemning certain kinds of people or dressing a certain way or even speaking a certain way. Some very vocal “Christians” certainly seem to think this is how we are to differentiate ourselves.
Today’s verse describes the actual way followers of Jesus are to be different. We are to be kind, compassionate, and forgiving. We are to love others.
This is very different!
Human nature, and society, has the goal of self-preservation and self-promotion. Being kind does not get me there so instead I take whatever I can get away with and don’t give a thought to anyone else. If I have a chance at being part of the 1%, damn the other 99%. And if someone else threatens my plan, I will expend all my energy climbing on top of them until they have failed, and I have succeeded. That’s the advice of common culture.
So to be different, to stand out the way Jesus intended, I must be like Jesus and be giving instead of taking, be reaching down and lifting up instead of grasping up and pulling down. I need to ignore my own status and needs in favor of the comfort and goals of others. That is radically different and is exactly how Christians should be identified.
Dear God,
Please forgive me for fitting in more often than I strive to be different in the way you ask. It is easy to be self-serving but hard to be kind and compassionate. It is easy to judge but hard to forgive. Yet I want you to forgive me. Teach me and remind me to be different, every chance I get.
CamDevo 