The Gospel Comes with a House Key
Our Post-Christian World (3|4)
The Kindness of Hospitality
• 4. Don’t Accuse of Ill Will People Who Hold to a Different Theology
• 5. Know Why It Matters That We Are Made in God’s Image
Pages 56-61
TOGETHER read the book (END READING AT: Reconciliation starts with repentance.) and discuss the content below.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out (try to keep it brief).
Colossians 3:10 (NIV) and [you] have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
Ephesians 1:4-6 (NIV) For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
Ephesians 2:5-7 (NIV) [God], made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions —it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 4:22-24 (NIV) You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Being created in the image of God has consequences and expectations. We find there a mandate to steward well - to care for, nurture, teach, and protect - the family and the world. Failing to discern rightly who we are renders us unable to accurately discern anything we touch, feel, think, or dream. Failing to discern rightly who we are renders us unable to properly know who God is.
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your notes and pray.
One important way we can be good neighbors is to help people carry the crosses they bear. The job of an ally is to accompany someone in their suffering and to carry some of the load of cross bearing. The job of an ally makes the cross lighter, not by erecting or supporting laws that oppose God’s law, but by being good company in the bearing of its weight.
What is your response to this statement?
Rosaria Butterfield lists six practices that reflect biblical kindness. Today, we examine one and a half. Journal your thoughts and feelings about each one.
4. Don’t Accuse of Ill Will People Who Hold to a Different Theology.
5. Know Why It Matters Most That We Are Made in God’s Image.
How does awareness that all humans are made in the image of God affect how we view our post-Christian neighbors?
Pause and Pray - that God would enable your words to be Christ’s words of grace to those who share their burdens with you.
EXTRA READING:
“We shall awaken from our dullness and rise vigorously toward justice. If we fall in love with creation deeper and deeper, we will respond to its endangerment with passion.”
- Hildegard of Bingen (1098 - 1179)