Not because we first loved Him did Christ love us, but “while we were still sinners” He died for us. He does not treat us as we deserve. Although our sins merit condemnation, He does not condemn us. Year after year He has borne with our weakness and ignorance, with our ingratitude and waywardness. Despite our wanderings, our hardness of heart, our neglect of His Holy Word, His hand is stretched out still.
Grace is an attribute of God exercised toward undeserving human beings. We did not seek for it, but it was sent in search of us. God rejoices to extend His grace to us, not because we are worthy but because we are so utterly unworthy. Our only claim to His mercy is our great need.
The Lord God through Jesus Christ holds out His hand all the day long in invitation to the sinful and fallen. He will receive all. He welcomes all. It is His glory to pardon the chief of sinners. He will deliver the captive. He will lower the golden chain of His mercy to the lowest depths of human wretchedness and lift up the debased soul contaminated with sin.
Every human being is the object of loving interest to Him who gave His life that He might bring sinners back to God. Guilty and helpless souls, liable to be destroyed by the arts and snares of Satan, are cared for as a shepherd cares for the sheep of his flock.
The Savior’s example is to be the standard of our service for the tempted and the erring. We are to manifest toward others the same interest, tenderness, and longsuffering that He has manifested toward us. “‘As I have loved you,’” He says, “‘that you also love one another.’” John 13:34. If Christ lives in us, we shall reveal His unselfish love toward all with whom we have to do. As we see men and women in need of sympathy and help, we shall not ask, “Are they worthy?” but, “How can I benefit them?”
Rich and poor, high and low, free and bond are God’s heritage. He who gave His life to redeem sinners sees in every human being a value that exceeds finite computation. By the mystery and glory of the cross we are to discern His estimate of the value of the soul. When we do this, we shall feel that human beings, however degraded, have cost too much to be treated with coldness or contempt. We shall realize the importance of working for lost souls, that they may be saved and exalted to the throne of God.
The lost coin in the Savior’s parable, though lying in the dirt and rubbish, was still a piece of silver. Its owner wanted to find it because it was of value. So every soul, however degraded by sin, is in God’s sight accounted precious. As the coin bore the image and superscription of the reigning power, so human beings at creation bore the image and superscription of God. Though now marred and dim through the influence of sin, the traces of this inscription remain on every soul. God desires to recover that soul and to retrace upon it His own image in righteousness and holiness.
How little do we enter into sympathy with Christ on that which should be the strongest bond of union between us and Him—compassion for depraved, guilty, suffering souls, dead in trespasses and sins! Our inhumanity toward others is our greatest sin. Many think that they are representing the justice of God while they wholly fail to represent His tenderness and His great love. Often the ones whom they treat with sternness and severity are under the stress of temptation. Satan is wrestling with these souls, and harsh, unsympathetic words discourage them and cause them to fall a prey to the tempter’s power.
It is a delicate matter to deal with minds. Only He who reads the heart knows how to bring people to repentance. Only His wisdom can give us success in reaching the lost. You may stand up stiffly, feeling, “I am holier than you,” and it matters not how correct your reasoning or how true your words; they will never touch hearts. The love of Christ, revealed in word and act, will win its way to the soul when reiterating precepts or arguments would accomplish nothing.
We need more Christlike sympathy not merely for those who appear to us to be faultless but for poor, suffering, struggling souls who are often overtaken in fault, sinning and repenting, tempted and discouraged. We are to go to our fellow mortals, touched, like our merciful High Priest, with the feeling of their infirmities.
It was the outcast, the publican and sinner, the despised of the nations, that Christ called and drew to Himself by His lovingkindness. The one class that He would never countenance was those who stood apart in their selfesteem and looked down on others.
“Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in,” Christ urges us, “that My house may be filled.” In obedience to this word we must go to the “heathen” who are near us and to those who are afar off. The “publicans and harlots” must hear the Savior’s invitation. Through the kindness and longsuffering of His messengers, the invitation becomes a compelling power to uplift those who are sunken in the lowest depths of sin.
Christian motives demand that we work with a steady purpose, an undying interest, an ever-increasing earnestness for the souls whom Satan is seeking to destroy. Nothing is to chill our earnest, yearning energy for the salvation of the lost.
Mark how all through the Word of God there is manifest the spirit of urgency, of imploring men and women to come to Christ. To draw people to the Savior we must seize every opportunity, in private and in public, presenting every argument, urging every motive of infinite weight. With all our power we must urge them to look to Jesus and to accept His life of self-denial and sacrifice. We must show that we expect them to give joy to the heart of Christ by using every one of His gifts in honoring His name.
Saved by Hope
“We are saved by hope.” Romans 8:24, KJV. The fallen must be led to feel that it is not too late for them to repent. Christ honored sinners with His confidence and thus placed them on their honor. Even those who had fallen the lowest He treated with respect. It was a continual pain to Christ to be brought into contact with enmity, depravity, and impurity, but never did He utter one word to show that His sensibilities were shocked or His refined tastes offended. Whatever the evil habits, the strong prejudices, or the overbearing passions of human beings, He met them all with pitying tenderness.As we partake of His Spirit, we shall regard every person as a brother or sister, with similar temptations and trials, often falling and struggling to rise again, battling with discouragements and difficulties, craving sympathy and help. Then we shall meet them in such a way as not to discourage or repel them, but to awaken hope in their hearts. As they are thus encouraged, they can say with confidence, “Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; when I fall, I will arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light unto me.” He “pleads my case, and executes justice for me; He will bring me forth to the light, and I will see His righteousness.” Micah 7:8, 9.
God “looks on all the inhabitants of the earth;He counsels us, in dealing with the tempted and erring, consider “yourself lest you also be tempted.” Galatians 6:1. With a sense of our own infirmities, we shall have compassion for the infirmities of others.
He fashions their hearts individually.”
Psalm 33:14, 15.
“Who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive?” “‘One is your Teacher, ... and you are all brethren.’” “Why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother?” “Therefore let us not judge one another, ... but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way.” 1 Corinthians 4:7; Matthew 23:8; Romans 14:10, 13.
It is always humiliating to have one’s errors pointed out. None should make the experience more bitter by needless censure. No one was ever reclaimed by reproach, but many have thus been repelled and have been led to steel their hearts against conviction. A tender spirit, a gentle, winning deportment may save the erring and hide a multitude of sins.
The apostle Paul found it necessary to reprove wrong, but how carefully he tried to show that he was a friend to the erring! How tenderly he explained to them the reason for his action! He made them understand that it cost him pain to give them pain. He showed his confidence and sympathy toward the ones who were struggling to overcome.
“Out of much affliction and anguish of heart,” he said, “I wrote to you, with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you.” 2 Corinthians 2:4. “For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. ... Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. ... For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. ... Therefore we have been comforted.” 2 Corinthians 7:8-13.
“I rejoice that I have confidence in you in everything.” Verse 16. “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart.” “Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved.” “Now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord.” Philippians 1:3-7; 4:1; 1 Thessalonians 3:8.
Paul wrote to these believers as “saints in Christ Jesus,” but he was not writing to those who were perfect in character. He wrote to them as men and women who were striving against temptation and who were in danger of falling. He pointed them to “the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep.” He assured them that “through the blood of the everlasting covenant” He will “make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ.” Hebrews 13:20, 21.
How to Help the Erring
When people who are at fault become conscious of their error, be careful not to destroy their self-respect. Do not discourage them by indifference or distrust. Do not say, “Before giving them my confidence, I’ll wait to see whether they’ll hold out.” Often this very distrust causes tempted ones to stumble.We should try to understand the weakness of others. We know little of the heart trials of those who have been bound in chains of darkness and who lack resolution and moral power. Most pitiable is the condition of those who are suffering under remorse. They are as one stunned, staggering, sinking into the dust. They can see nothing clearly. The mind is beclouded, they know not what steps to take. Many a poor soul is misunderstood, unappreciated, full of distress and agony—a lost, straying sheep. The soul cannot find God, yet has an intense longing for pardon and peace.
Utter no word to cause deeper pain! To souls weary of sin but not knowing where to find relief, present the compassionate Savior. Take them by the hand, lift them up, speak to them words of courage and hope. Help them to grasp the hand of the Savior.
We become too easily discouraged over people who do not at once respond to our efforts. Never should we cease to work for a soul while there is one gleam of hope. Precious souls cost our self-sacrificing Redeemer too dear a price to be lightly given up to the tempter’s power.
We need to put ourselves in the place of the tempted ones. Consider the power of heredity, the influence of evil associations and surroundings, the power of wrong habits. Can we wonder that under such influences many become degraded? Can we wonder that they should be slow to respond to efforts for their uplifting?
Often, when won to the gospel, those who appeared coarse and unpromising will be among its most loyal adherents and advocates. They are not altogether corrupt. Beneath the rough, forbidding exterior are good impulses that might be reached. Without a helping hand many would never recover themselves, but by patient, persistent effort they may be uplifted. Such need tender words, kind consideration, tangible help. They need the kind of counsel that will not extinguish the faint gleam of courage in the soul. Workers who come in contact with them should consider this.
Some will be found whose minds have been so long debased that they will never in this life become what they might have been under more favorable circumstances. But the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness may shine into the soul. It is their privilege to have the life that measures with the life of God. Plant in their minds uplifting, ennobling thoughts. Let your life make plain to them the difference between vice and purity, darkness and light. In your example let them read what it means to be a Christian. Christ is able to uplift the most sinful and place them where they will be acknowledged as children of God, joint heirs with Christ to the immortal inheritance.
By the miracle of divine grace, many may be fitted for lives of usefulness. Despised and forsaken, they have become utterly discouraged, and may appear stoical and stolid. But under the ministration of the Holy Spirit, the dull, clouded mind will awake. The slave of sin will be set free. Vice will disappear, and ignorance will be overcome. Through the faith that works by love, the heart will be purified and the mind enlightened.