“Two of the most powerful words in the human race are us and them.”

A thought by John Ortberg (2012-08-07) from his book, Who Is This Man?: TheUnpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus (p. 93). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

John says, “If someone is in my in group, I will tend to magnify their good qualities and overlook their negative qualities. If somebody is in the out group, I look for the bad and overlook the good. I look at each member of ‘us’ as a unique individual. I tend to look at everybody who is one of them as all alike.”

I really don’t think that is Jesus way of thinking. John then says, “For Jesus, the categories break down like this: It’s not us and them. It’s perfect and not perfect. It’s holy and sinful. Which puts all of humanity on the same side: the wrong side. But Jesus was determined to make that his side.”

He loves us, all of us. He died for us, all of us with no distinction. Somehow we need to catch that. Father forgive us for we have all sinned and fallen short. But he still loves us.

We too many time fight the wrong battles.

So is it his way that we live?

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