Hope for Anyone

It often seems odd how quickly we who claim Christian faith can discredit one another. I live in an area in which many Christians (including many pastors!) give each other very little time becaues of "faith" differences. There are some Christians I've met who are so busy trying to save people from other churches that they've neglected legitimately hurting people who could meet Jesus. A Wesleyan (which I am) might look at a Baptist (which I also am) and wonder about their salvation based on doctrinal issues. A non-denominational (some of my roots) might look at a Presbyterian (also in my roots) and wonder about their salvation based on their lack of outward charismatic expression in worship. We look around and judge one another's faith based on our interpretive doctrine. Is doctrine important? Yes, it is, but doctrinal variance does not necessarily lead a person away from the Lord.

It's remarkable, too, that we can quickly judge and label someone outside the faith as hopless. For the latter, I think of people that we Christians consider "beyond hope." I think of the "good lady" at my sister's junior high school who called her "evil" because of behavioral problems. I think of the homosexual people gathered in the city today, against whom many church-goers around here have railed. I think of the poor treatment a community near my hometown gave to a convicted child molestor who moved into town. I think of the villains of world history and how our perceptions paint that education. There was no talk about whether my sister was beyond hope (which she was not, as we all see today). There was no question about whether the molestor had been rehabilitated. There is rarely effort made to looking at historical villains as whole people. Rather, we write people off, beginning with their minor behavioral infractions, all the way to some people's insatiable thirst for destruction. Is evil hopeless? Yes, but not that hopless.

The two paragraphs above are like me thinking out loud about something intriguing I read today. We read in 2 Kings 21:25: "But there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord." Read that again: "...sold himself to do wickedness...." We would have written him off as hopeless, evil. What about the Lord? Read verses 28-29: "And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 'See how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbed himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity in his days....'" Interestingly enough, the Lord - against whom all Ahab's sins, all the "hopeless sins" above, all the doctrinal "sins" above, and all our very real sins have been committed - the Lord looked at someone who sold himself to wickedness and gives him life and hope. NO ONE is beyond hope.