I am not the poster child for perfect vision, as my glasses can attest. But as I wrote in my post Spiritual Glasses, it’s important to look at the world through the lens of God’s love.
2 Peter 1:4-9 says, Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
Sometimes we get caught up in ourselves. We point out others’ sin and put ourselves on a pedestal. But we’re no better than they are because we are sinners too. The above passage I pointed out notes that now that we are saved from sin, we should focus on knowledge and temperance and patience and godliness. But not only that, we should strive to show brotherly kindness and charity. Peter says that those who lack these traits are blind and have forgotten that they were saved from sin.
But when we remember how far God has brought us, it impacts how we treat others. We begin to see them as we once were: lost and in need of a Savior. Not only that, we remember that God loves them too. That reminder is the most important thing, so let me say it again.
God loves them too.
That love should be reflected in our attitude toward others, and it should impact our vision.
In John 4, the woman at the well is a Samaritan, someone the Jews normally avoid. But Jesus sat down and talked to her. And what did He talk to her about? Salvation. He saw someone in need of Christ. He had every right to condemn her for her sin and avoid her, but instead He showed her kindness because He saw her through the lens of His love.
Do our children witness up viewing people through the lens of God’s love? Or do they see us viewing others through the lens of the flesh? If we’re to teach them to love their neighbor, we need to also demonstrate what that means. And an important step to loving our neighbor is to see them as God sees them. If we put on our spiritual glasses. it will help our vision.
