NO GOD... NO GRACE

John 1:14

When we see others as inferior to us or we somehow dehumanize them by reducing them to labels, we somehow justify the need to control them.  This often shows up in the history books; Europe’s control of the Ottoman Empire, America’s control of the Native Indians, even in the Civil War the Southerners were seen as ignorant and inferior.  This sense of being entitled to control people and countries because they are inferior to ours is problematic.

Steeped in the law of reason the concept of Lex Talionis (an eye for an eye) speaks to the right to retaliate.  If we operate under that law, the Indians would have the right to reclaim their land; ISIS has every right to reclaim their land…every right to blow up the White House.  It is what we have done to them throughout history.  This law of reason and right is what is left to us once God has been removed from His place of honor and authority in our lives and in our nations.  There is no grace or truth in the world when the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been discredited, disbelieved, or disregarded.

Those of us who believe and live in the light of the Gospel are easily dismissed and are no longer welcome in this world.  It was never our world anyway, but Constantine made an attempt to welcome Christians into what he felt was his world, but even that deception has run its course.

We truly are sojourners in a land that is not our own, while we look to our homeland that God promised He would prepare for us.  So while here we must be hospitable to our host but we must also remain true to who we are, at whatever cost.  We are responsible only to our Master and not allow ourselves to fall under the control of any other.

“In this world you will have tribulation.  But take heed;

I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33