Don't Look Down...On the Lost

I look down on the lost. The Jews and the Gentiles struggled with a condescending sprit. They defended their own ways of doing things while criticizing the others' practices. In Romans 11, Paul compares the Jews to a wild olive tree and the Gentiles to a cultivated olive tree. 

The Jews are saved by breaking off their ties with the wild tree and joining the Gentile's faith, transforming into a cultivated tree. What humility this took for the Jews so set in their ways! God has kindness toward fallen branches and wants to restore them by His grace. 

The Jews rejection of the Gospel brought salvation to the Gentiles...good came from the evil. Now Paul wants the Jews to share in that salvation. But what does this have to do with us and favoritism? Well, we are not born into the cultivated tree but grafted from the wild tree by God's grace. Therefore, we have no reason to look down on those branches still in the wild! 

"Grace is given, not to make us proud, but to make us thankful." Guzik

The only reason we can see is because God has given us His eyes. We were once blinded by our sin just like the enemy has blinded the lost. 

"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:18

2 ways we can keep from looking down:

♥︎Instead of pride, God commands us to respond to the unsaved with fear. Fear the sins of others. Fear God's wrath upon the evil. Fear lest we commit a sin as they and lose our intimacy with God. We can fear the actions of others without fearing the person himself. It is good to fear sin. Sin is destructive. Bad company corrupts good morals. 

♥︎ Pray for the lost. Wait for God to turn on the light in their darkness. It is His  job, not our own, to give them sight. 

☎︎

The Girl Next Door