But grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Ephesians 4:7 NABRE
Paul is writing to the community in Ephesus about unity, followers are all to be one. In unity each has a gift for building up the kingdom of God. In Paul’s view grace is a special blessing received from Christ who provides gifts and how much of a gift we receive. Grace is seen as an attitude of favor, generosity, a gift, or some other consequence of this attitude. It is a spirit of forgiveness, a trust that has no boundaries. It is often viewed as a gift from God, but if you have a true friend, they can give you grace. In fact, grace is only something we can receive from another, we can’t acquire it on our own or without another being. Life is meant to be lived with others, and grace is a big part of the relational necessity. Paul wants us to see Christ as the giver of grace, but Christ works though others. In order to truly receive grace, we need the love of another, love of a close friend, someone who sees who we are, sometimes seeing us better than you see ourself and saying you are ok, you are beautiful, you are doing well.
When we receive this grace, we are meant to give it to another, to someone who needs grace, a gift from Christ through us. If we are to build up the kingdom of God we can only do it by providing grace, using our gifts to lift others. In society today we too easily run into people who don’t see things the same way we see them and rather than struggle to see their point of view, or at least accept they are different and their point of view comes from their experience, we tend to just eliminate them from our life. The kingdom of God can’t be built from this approach, in these circumstances we are actually destroying the work of kingdom building. We need to be people of grace, gifting others with understanding and love.
Do you have a friend who provides you with grace? Are you a friend who gifts others, sharing grace?
In society today we too easily run into people who don’t see things the same way we see them and we tend to just eliminate theses people from our life. The kingdom of God can’t be built from this approach. Click To Tweet#bible #godisgreat #jesus #christianity #dailybibleverse @youversion #BeAnEncourager #grace #gift #Ephesians#everybodyalways#god#jesuschrist#jesussaves#godisgood#dailydevotion#biblestudy#scripture#bibleverse#verseoftheday#cross#last#gospels#loveeachother#godisgreat#thisVineyard#youversion#everythingalways