John 8
Jesus calls us to a life of a very high ethical standard. In Matthew 5:28 he says, "But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." A rather high standard. In today's passage he encounters a woman who has been caught in adultery. The punishment for adultery was death. His response to her, "Go now and leave your life of sin." An amazing gift of grace.
Pull these two teachings of Jesus together and they are very powerful. There is the call to a high ethical standard in our living but there is grace when we fall short. Living with such a perspective provides a powerful tension in our lives. Our tendency is to either have a high ethical standard and condemn those who fall short, or to the opposite extreme, always offer grace with no corresponding ethical standard. Jesus calls us to live with both; the high ethical standard and the willingness to offer grace to others and to receive grace for ourselves.
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"You're missing God in all this" is the subtitle of one of the sections of this chapter in the Message. I keep wondering how many times I "miss God" in people and events in my life. One point that is so strong in my classes in spriitual direction is that we are reminded to ask, "Where is God in this any situation?" I am beginning to realize that by looking, we CAN see God's grace -and that it IS our responsibility (as Ken said) to share that grace with others - and also to be able to accept it for ourselves.
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