One of my atheist friends made an observation: “You Christians have it easy in some ways. Since your god forgives you for everything, you get to go around being mean without ever making it right because you’ve been ‘forgiven’.”
Wow!
My friend pointed out that atheists are not conscience free. Instead of praying to God to forgive them and (hopefully) silence that still small voice nagging at them from the back of their head, they actually go to the person they offended and make things right.
There are people we’ve wronged with whom we will never be reconciled. Loved ones who are gone or mentally impaired, for instance. In cases involving missed opportunities, we are so blessed to know that forgiveness can still be ours because of God’s amazing grace.
When we lie, cheat, gossip, or in some other way mistreat people, we can’t just fall back on the bumper sticker-ism, “Not Perfect, Just Forgiven”. We must be reconciled!
God’s forgiveness is ours for the asking, about that there is no argument. The New Testament is filled with admonishments to believers regarding our interpersonal relationships, and yet we still treat our brothers and sisters shamefully. Of course God forgives us for our many infractions, but we need to make things right with each other.
Come on! Get off the pew and be reconciled with the people you worship with every Sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment