Acceptable part 3
If someone has to change before you accept them... you really haven't accepted THEM at all. And that's the problem I have with the idea that, "God loves you just the way you are, but He loves you too much to leave you that way." Either we're accepted in the Beloved, or we're not. Either He loves us just the way we are... or He doesn't. Now watch this: Our key verse for this Rant series is Romans 12:2. But today I want to back up a verse and look at Romans 12:1. Because I think, in a very real way, verse one shows us HOW to be not conformed to this world. HOW to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." Now we already talked about how if Paul is beseeching us to not conform to this world, it's because we've already been translated OUT of this world--out of the power of darkness--and into the Kingdom of God's dear Son. It isn't, "Get out of the world." It's, "You're already out. Don't go back." And, again, I think verse one of Romans chapter twelve tells us HOW to be transformed (into what we've already been transformed into). By the mercies of God we present our bodies as a living sacrifice. That's it. We stop trying to be someone we're not and we simply rest in Him. We simply let Him be Himself in us, and through us, and as us. Let our hands be His hands. Let our mouth be His mouth. Let what's inside of us (LOVE!) come out of us. And I always like to point out that Paul doesn't say this is a hard thing to do. He doesn't say it's a burden. He says it's our reasonable service. Which, I believe, is kind of the same thing John is saying in his letters. Specifically in 1 John 4:11, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." And 1 John 3:16, "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." Receive it and release it. That's the New Commandment right there: Love one another as Jesus loves you. NOT love one another as much as you think they deserve. NOT love one another as long as they're willing to conform to your idea of who they should be. Love one another as you are loved by God. Let God fill you up, and then let it overflow naturally from the inside out. I'm telling you, when we don't accept people... it's not going to get them to run to God. It's going to force them to run in the opposite direction. And that's not what we want. Jesus' arms were open wide on the cross. So ought our arms be open wide toward each other. You can't love someone without accepting them. And you can't accept someone if you're trying to change them. Or expecting them to change. Or wishing they would change. The only true "change" in the universe took place 2,000 years ago on the cross when we were conformed to the image of God's Son. And that's what Paul is telling us to accept. By presenting our bodies as living sacrifices. By being who we are, and letting other people be who they are... and loving them as we are loved by God!