Practical Grace

Have you ever considered what grace looks like? I’m not referring to the doctrinal / theological use of the word as we understand it applied to our salvation. The unmerited mercy and favor – Christ’s work on the cross. Although, our understanding of the word in terms of our salvation – the practical events of Christ going to the cross, and on the cross – very much affects our understanding of the word. This part of His life, the practical living, needs careful examination so that we can learn how to respond in trying and difficult situations.

Reading through the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John while paying attention to His interactions with those around Him will give us the practical wisdom we need to walk wisely in cultural traditional societies. He does not change the message, nor His responses to challenges.

Often we consider difficulties as those bad and nasty things that happen to all of us, those moments in life that are trying. Seldom do we consider day-to-day living in a spiritually immature society or culture as a difficulty. It is. Day-to-day living in a culture whose behaviors although acceptable within their own society can become an ongoing difficulty, especially when behaviors are not Biblical.

To point out the un-Biblical nature of behaviors can be offensive particularly when a culture considers their manner of living essential to providing societal order. It has served them well through time, and provides morality, ethics, and an ordering of society based on man’s virtues. It is their generationally approved manner of living. It may maintain a status quo through customary observances, but the status quo imprisons in a belief system that traps. It enslaves. Sadly, they do not know it, and they have no standard other than their own to measure it.

Ministering to those of our ethnic heritage caught in traditional living can be tiring. Often any attempt to begin a conversation on what we know to be sinful behaviors can break down rather than build up a foundation of Truth. In situations like these, we are to follow the Lord’s counsel in how to cultivate a foundation for future ministry. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).

Most often, teaching is our sacrificial living in a culture that does not understand our manner of life. It consists of the Ephesians 4:29 example, “let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word nor unwholesome or worthless talk ever come out of your mouth, but only such speech as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need and the occasion, that it may be a blessing and give grace, God’s favor, to those who hear it.”

Galatians 5:22-23 – the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control – provides the practical heart attitude needed to live and minister amongst those who need the Gospel of hope for them to know it is possible to live differently for the glory of the Lord.

Do you struggle with your ethnic heritage’s traditional manner of living?

How does it distract from the Gospel?

What can you do to cultivate a community of hope?

#practical #grace