Equality ~ A Guest Post in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Team C4C thanks one of our most faithful prayer partners, Terence Allen, for this inspiring and encouraging post. We trust it will touch you like it did us.

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Equality
by Terence Allen, Elder at Cumberland Community Church, Smyrna, GA and prayer partner for Church 4 Chicks

Hi Everyone!

I hope you spend some of your time this week reflecting on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose vision of a Beloved Community helped transform our nation and the world. I would not be free to vote, go where and how I please, or to marry the wife God chose for me if it had not been for people like Dr. King who gave their blood, sweat, tears, and sometimes their lives for equality and justice.

Paul reminds us of a similar equality in Romans 14:5 when he says, " Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

Today on Facebook, I tried to correct an acquaintance who was spreading a false rumor. I sent them a link that refuted the error that she was passing along as truth. Her response went something like, "there are other people who are saying the same thing that I did." She added a smiley face, but that didn't mollify me. I was annoyed, and told myself, "that's the last time I try to set someone straight about stuff like that." Whether I'll stick to my words, or eat them will be seen in the future, but this Scripture causes me to investigate my motives. Was I merely trying to point out a factual error, or was I trying to prove a point? Rather than reply to her post, wouldn't it have been better to send her a private message? How did I think she was going to respond since I tried to "correct" her publicly?

Sometimes in our haste to point out the truth, we take the wrong path to do the right thing. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Everyone should have room to walk, stumble, and fall. And when someone does fall, whether they know the Lord or not, do we help them up, or laugh at their misfortune? Do we help them up with grace and mercy, or we do assist them while feeling entitled to heap condemnation and scorn upon them because they look, think, or act differently? Paul also said in Galatians 6:1 that when a brother or sister falls that we should restore them "in the Spirit of meekness; considering ourselves, lest you also be tempted."

Whether they are saved or unsaved, our fellow travellers in this world deserve nothing less than our love, respect, and humility. We would expect to be treated by others in no less a fashion.

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Used and posted with permission.