Seeing Gold In Others
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. John 13:34
Believers are not called to love one another in whatever way they think/feel is best, they are called to love one another as Christ loved them. His demonstration of love is the model disciples are to imitate. How he saw is how we all are to see. How he walked is how we all are to walk. It can be “natural” to want to lower that bar and settle for less, but God’s grace and the Holy Spirit can empower believers to glorify God in this area.
What does it mean to see the gold in others? There is much to say, but simply put, it means: seeing people for more than how they are acting, and instead, seeing them for who God created them to be. This does not mean you dismiss, live in denial or approve of their incorrect actions, but rather, it means you live with a deep understanding that comes from God’s heart and strengthens you to recognize they are created for more.
As believers grow in this truth, they can overcome letting other people shape and define their lives and can let God’s love for them in Christ shape and define their lives. Through this process of becoming more like Christ, they are able to see more and more with his eyes so that when people do them wrong, they are not hurt and crying merely for themselves, but they can begin to hurt, cry and pray for the wrongdoer.
For example, Jesus knew Peter would deny him three times, yet he had already given Peter the name, “Rock” (Matthew 16:18). Pause for a moment and think about that.
Jesus knew Peter was going to run away and desert him in the garden of Gethsemane, yet he told Peter beforehand, “Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:31-32) Jesus is clearly seeing Peter for more than his denial and desertion, he is seeing “the gold” in Peter.
Whether you know it or not, God sees the gold in you.