The instruction and encouragement of the
scriptures were meant to reveal the God of hope so that inspired by the living
word we might abound in what the God of hope is all about… which is hope, of
course; but what kind of hope? If the incarnation of God in the Christ is any
indication of what the God of hope is all about then there is nothing God will
not do, nowhere God will not go, to be reconciled to us so that reconciled to
God we would be reconciled to each other. Or in other words, “May the God of
steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another…”
And again, “whoever does not love
their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have
not seen.” (1 John 4:20) For this reason Christ became the
servant of the circumcised and the mercy and hope of the Gentiles so that with
one voice Jew and Gentile would glorify God. Or as Paul will write to the law
bound Galatians, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor
female...” (Galatians 3:28) So if in Christ God has erased the dividing lines
of race, status, and gender might it be a safe bet that God’s brightest and
best hope is that we would do the same?
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