When I hear someone say, ”Just see the good in people, not their faults,” caution lights start blinking in my head. Too often, it’s a way of saying, “I’m OK. You’re OK. Don’t shine any light on my sins, and I won’t shine any light on yours. Let’s just all get along.” Well, that’s not God’s way of looking at people, so it shouldn’t be ours.
God sees value in people because He created them. God sees the good that He created in man, AND He sees the all the evil that man has let in. He doesn’t ignore or excuse sin. He loves every man, and He knows that sin will ultimately doom that person to eternal torment, but His desire is to SAVE him from that awful fate. He wants to reconcile, not write them off, not condemn. If they choose not to believe on Him, they have condemned THEMSELVES.
God is love. Whenever we read something in the Word about love, it is describing God. Any commandment we read, about how God wants us to love, it is showing us how God loves.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 says, “ Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth.” [KJV]
This is not only telling us how WE should love. It’s revealing God’s heart. He will never ask us to do something that He wouldn’t do, or that is not according to His nature. We are to BE like Him, and love like He loves.
God has certainly confronted me about things that didn’t please Him, but never to humiliate me, or discourage me, or put me down. (Though sometimes I felt pretty wiped out at the time.) It has always been in mercy, with words of support, and a hand to lift me up. Now that’s the love I feel for others.
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