Don't Close the Door

“This is my command; Love each other.” — John 15:17

John 15:17 is one of my favorite verses because of its simplicity, yet it carries so much power: “This is my command; Love each other.”

As Christians, we can sometimes forget this command because we become so focused on defending our faith that we go on the attack. We become so devoted to spreading the Good News that when someone doesn’t accept it, we can automatically shut the doors of the Kingdom of God on them—as if Jesus didn’t save a man while He was literally being crucified.

There is no person beyond the reach of God, and if there were, we would have no ability to know who that person is. So our responsibility is not to decide who is worthy of God’s mercy. Our responsibility is to do what Jesus commanded us to do: love.

We shouldn’t shut the doors on someone because they come from a different race, social status, background, or even religion.

Look at the Samaritan woman in John 4. She was a marginalized woman from a people whom the Jews looked down upon. She worshiped differently, and Jesus told her that she worshiped what she did not know. Yet He did not turn her away. Instead, He revealed Himself to her and taught her that the Father seeks those who worship in spirit and truth.

Jesus didn’t close the door.

The doors of the Kingdom are not reserved for the rich, the educated, the respectable, or the people who already have everything figured out.

But this does not mean we are commanded to ignore sin.

We are not called to turn a blind eye to wrongdoing. Scripture calls us to judge rightly, and Jesus Himself told the woman caught in adultery, “Go now and leave your life of sin.” Grace does not require us to pretend that sin isn’t sin. But neither does truth give us permission to throw stones.

The story of the woman caught in adultery is often remembered from one side or the other. If you’re the person who has sinned, you remember Jesus saying, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” If you’re the person confronting sin, you remember that Jesus also told her, “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Perhaps we need to stand on both sides.

Don’t throw the first stone—but don’t forget to go and sin no more.

We can hold truth and grace in the same hand.

Consider Zacchaeus. He was a tax collector, and he was not well regarded by the people around him. Yet when Jesus entered his town, He chose Zacchaeus’s house as the place where He would stay. Jesus reminded those who questioned Him that “it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”

Jesus went toward the person everyone else had already written off.

And then there is Hannah.

Hannah came before God carrying deep anguish. Eli saw her praying and assumed she was drunk. He misunderstood what he was seeing. But when Hannah explained herself, Eli listened. He did not prevent her from praying. He did not tell her she was unworthy to stand before God. He blessed her and sent her away in peace.

Hannah teaches us not to mistake someone’s outward appearance or emotional condition for their spiritual condition.

Zacchaeus teaches us that someone’s reputation doesn’t make them unreachable.

The Samaritan woman teaches us that someone’s past does not have to determine God’s future for them.

The woman caught in adultery teaches us that grace does not require us to ignore sin.

And the thief on the cross reminds us that we should never assume someone is beyond the reach of God’s mercy. While Jesus was being crucified, a condemned man turned toward Him and said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus answered him, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”

If Jesus was willing to extend mercy to a dying criminal in His final moments, who are we to decide that someone else has gone too far?

We should be bridges to Jesus, not obstacles to Him.

We should love people and assume the best of them rather than assuming the worst. We can correct with love. We can speak truth with grace. We can call sin what it is without treating the sinner as though they are beyond redemption.

Those who harden their hearts can ultimately be judged by our Lord, Savior, and Mediator. That responsibility does not belong to us.

Matthew 23:13 should serve as a warning:

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.”

Let us be careful that we never become the reason someone believes there is no place for them in God’s presence.

We will all stand before God. We will all need mercy. And the same God who has been patient with us calls us to extend that patience to others.

So let us remember the command of Jesus:

Love each other.

Not only the people who agree with us.

Not only the people who look like us.

Not only the people who worship like us.

Not only the people whose lives we approve of.

Love them.

Speak truth. Extend grace. Correct when necessary. Forgive when possible. And leave the final judgment to God.

Because the Kingdom of God is not ours to guard against the people we don’t think belong.

We are called to open the door, point people toward Jesus, and love them along the way.

And perhaps the greatest reason we can do that is because Jesus loves us far more deeply than we will ever know how to love Him—or one another.

By:

Oscar Santana