3. We Believe in the Imago Dei in All People.
Jesus didn’t play favorites. He sought to engage all those He met because He believed they were worth engaging. The woman at the well was of equal importance as His 12 disciples. When we forget that even the democrat, the republican, the woman, the violated, the aged, the Black, the White, or any other unlike us is worthy of all our love and attention, we have missed the mark of Jesus.
4. We Keep Telling People of the Goodness of God.
The evangelical church has gotten a bad rap. Christian faith seems to be on the decline. But the good news is that evangelicalism isn’t holy writ; only the Bible is—and the Bible points to the goodness of God in all matters of brokenness and difficulty. This includes people, too. We are a sent people who proclaim the goodness of God even when obstacles threaten to tell us we cannot love one another.
We are indeed exiles living in this world that is not our home. And yet, unquestionably for now, it is our home and we have a clear command: go into the world, and engage the hard situations and the difficult people that Jesus Himself would engage. “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us,” 2 Corinthians 5:20 says.
The thorny and divisive issues of our day require that we live as though Paul’s message to God’s people is still relevant today. We are ambassadors, calling all people in all situations to a unity and transformation that, without God, could never happen. The “unknown gods” of today are crying out to be given a name. That’s why God sent us.
