In the same way, there are people in your life who are not saved. They might be unpleasant, miserable, or even evil. But if that's the only way you see them, you're consigning them to the darkness. If you see them as people who happened to be inside a prison of rottenness by those things, it's a different story.
We were all confined to a prison of sin at one time. One's sin is no lesser or greater than another. We are all sinners in the eyes of our Father. Yet we look upon other people on the wrong path as though they are beneath us. We say things like, "I'm a good person, I've never done that before,"or "Well I've never killed someone, so I'm not bad." The lines of good and bad, right and wrong have been quite construed in today's society. We say, "This person did this or that so they only deserve punishment." What do you think would have happened to all of us if our Heavenly Father had that mindset? No one would be saved.
We were given a second chance; and a third, fourth, fifth, and so on. How many times have you had to ask for forgiveness? How many times has He forgiven you? So we must look at everyone through the eyes of Christ. Because without His vision, we will never see what that person can become. We will only see the sin. But there's hope for a prison break. Then they become those with the potential to become children of God. By faith and the blood of the Messiah, see the person separate from their prison. And by the grace and power of God, help arrange their prison break!
Today, practice separating people from their sins. See them as those made to become children of God, but they have to first break free of their prison.
