Perceptions can be both accurate and incomplete at the same time. Let’s say you’re driving north on a state highway when you arrive on the scene of a terrible multi-car crash. Your friends are driving south on that same highway and see that same accident. You call and decide to share your experience at a local coffee shop.
Will your stories line up? Maybe at best, not close at worse. Yet, will both of your stories be accurate? From your perspective they will be. Why the discrepancy? Yes, you saw the same accident, but only from your side of it.
Biblical truth never changes, its application can. (See Romans 14 for an example.) Galatians 6:4, “each one should test his own actions,” is in the context of assisting a brother walk closer with Jesus. We’re instructed to make sure we’re walking on our side of the street before we cross the street to help another.
One way to love Jesus is through our actions; and yet, the Spirit of God can provide a variety of action steps to a similar challenge. Therefore, just because He had you do one thing, doesn’t make what another person did necessarily wrong. You won’t know either way until you talk with them.
Believers who love Jesus will listen and follow Him with other believers. This is not always easy and can be messy because we can only see life from our side of the street.
The key is to lovingly walk with each other as we work through loving Jesus together (see Colossians 3:12-14). As we do, both sides of the street get cleaner and easier to walk on while the world sees Jesus in us.
Set Free Noww“W”