1 Peter 1: 16-17 “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must be holy because I am holy.’ And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of Him during your time as ‘foreigners in the land.’”

If you’re a child of God, then you’re enjoying the goodness of the fruit of God’s labor and the blessings of Christ’s sufferings. We can enjoy the good things of God, for we’ve been born again and have been made new creatures in Christ. Sometimes, however, we need to be reminded that we used to be sinners and in need of God’s grace. Like me, you’ve probably heard the statement that says, “But for the grace of God.” In light of what that means, we need to remember to extend the same grace to others that we have been given. Like God, we must become impartial to the unjust. Peter reminds us of a very important principle that needs to find its way back into the modern church: when each one of us stands before the Lord on the Day of Judgment, we won’t be given special privileges just because we accepted God’s grace.

A Christian doesn’t have to stand before the Great White Throne judgment; only those who rejected Jesus must face that kind of judgment. But, as Christians, we will be made to stand and give an account for what we did in this life before the judgment seat of Christ. Peter tells us that God requires His children to be holy, just as He is holy, and we are to obey the Word of God while we live in this present world.

Peter also teaches us that God, who is our righteous Judge, is without partiality. He wants us to know that about Him so that, as His children, we will remain impartial toward sinners in the way we approach them. This attribute is one of humility, because God is humble. Jesus tells us in the Gospels that He didn’t come to be served, but to serve. He didn’t hang out with only the “religious” crowd; He mostly hung out with the sinners (though He never excused sin). He did this, because He was sent to call the sick to repentance—not the well. He didn’t shun the sinners and treat them as a lower class of humans as did the religious leaders of His day.

Matthew 5: 43-48, “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For He gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Just think about this for a moment. If God hadn’t been impartial toward sinners, then none of them would have been saved. The verses in Matthew sound much like the verses in Peter’s epistle. God is good to the just and to the unjust, and He requires us to act in the same manner of humility. God has proven that He is indeed impartial by allowing His sun to shine on the righteous and the unrighteous. He allows the rain to fall in its season upon those who love Him and upon those who despise Him. Now that we are children of God, He wants us to truly represent Him by showing love toward the lost in the same way that we show love toward our friends. If this sounds hard for you to accomplish, it is. This is why the Father gave us His Spirit. It is through the Holy Spirit that the love of God is spread abroad. Human love can’t love its enemies, but God’s love has the capacity to love His enemies without limits.  —submitted by Asa Dockery, US