No One Excluded

I previously spoke about “my gang”. I know that the term has a deep history of the “us against them” mentality, the “insider and outsider” way of perceiving, the tendency to make a distinction between those who belong and those who do not. My gang is not like that. 

I am not claiming to be able to always welcome everyone, but that is not because they do not belong; it is rather that my heart is not yet big enough to do so. I am aware of that, but I do not want to let this “cardiac defect” lead me to justify myself when I am tempted to brand someone as a dangerous enemy to be banished at all cost or even be excluded from my list of those who are worthy of my respect.

That is not magnanimity on my part, nor an idealistic flight of fancy. It is grounded in something I believe in deeply, a belief that keeps on growing stronger and stronger as time passes. I believe that no one, under any circumstance whatsoever, for whatever reason, is ever excluded from God’s love. That is my only yardstick for measuring who should belong to my gang. The yardstick is not me or how I feel about someone; it is God, our loving Father.

“You have heard that it used to be said, ‘You shall love your neighbour’, and ‘hate your enemy’, but I tell you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Heavenly Father. For he makes the sun rise upon evil men as well as good, and he sends his rain upon honest and dishonest men alike.      Matthew 5,45