Acts 1:14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

This is in a way a very comforting verse to me, because it marks the point from which Jesus’ whole physical family was included among the believers. It had to be a pretty rough paradigm shift for them, because they felt they were too familiar with His humanity to believe His divinity. They had famously come to fetch Him from His ministry, thinking He had flipped out, (Luke 8:19-21) but now they were among those willing to risk arrest or even execution for associating themselves with Him. None of us view anyone with complete accuracy the way God does, but by His grace we do come to see each other more and more fully and accurately. I think that comes from a growing awareness of God’s grace toward us, which causes us to extend grace toward others. That’s why we aren’t to write anyone off. Paul is an excellent example of that, having been a stalwart persecutor of the believers but then being transformed by his encounter with Christ, as is recorded in Acts 9. The Church as a whole took quite a while before they could accept his changed status! We too need to understand that if God could save us, He can save anybody! That’s one reason Jesus famously told us in the Sermon on the Mount to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors; He might very well turn them into brothers and sisters in faith!

I haven’t been very big on making enemies, but I will confess to having essentially written some people off. That’s not to say that I’m to keep thinking about them and what they have done, but it is to say I should pray for them any time they come to mind, and believe that God might indeed transform them into a close brother or sister, what­ever our relationship might have been in the past. After all, He’s far bigger and more powerful than all their mistakes, or mine. Paul speaks of “having nothing to do with” people who make problems in the Church, (2 Timothy 3:5, Titus 3:10) but he also spoke of forgiving someone who was repentant. (2 Corinthians 2:10) I am not to write people off, but I am to submit them to God and refuse to carry unforgiveness in my own heart. That’s too heavy a burden to bear, whether I realize it or not.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for Your overwhelming grace toward me. Help me be a joyful channel of that grace toward others, remembering that if You could save and use me, You can certainly save and use them. Thank You. Praise God!