"...Just Brokenness"

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." (Psalms 51:17) If you understand the writings of John, he was all about being broken before God; as a matter of fact, until we are broken and live in humility, we really cannot love one another as Jesus asked us to love each other. Jesus really set the example of how we are to live, love, and judge; He did not come to condemn the world, but to save the world; He did not come as a King, that He was, but as a Servant, a Servant that laid down His life for us that we might have life in Him. Our brokenness comes from knowing our sinfulness, and the fact that our sin is the reason Jesus died upon that cross; it is because of my sin that He was stricken, and because of my iniquities that He was punished so brutally. And yet, in complete humility and love, Jesus did not curse nor beg for mercy for Himself, but asked the Father to forgive those that were punishing Him; which basically means, that He was asking the Father to forgive them who placed Him upon that cross, that would also include you and me; which means that Jesus was forgiving forward to us, even before we existed, He had forgiven us for our crimes against Him. That is the example of pure humility towards those that would do you harm; not just to forgive what has been done, but to forgive in advance of what might be done. Imagine what the church would look like if that was the kind of love we had for each other; there would be instant forgiveness granted, because forgiveness was already prepared in our hearts for one another. Think of all the bystanders that would be saved from being pulled into the fights that develop between brothers and sisters, if they could only refuse to be offended, by first forgiving before the offense even might happen. That is what Jesus did for you and for me, in that He forgave us then for what we do against Him today; He forgave us then, for what we will do against Him tomorrow! As a matter of fact, there is nothing that me or you can do that He has not already forgiven us for; nothing... "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from Him, That he who loveth God love his brother also." (1 John 4:20-21)