This week’s Sunday School lesson is on John 4–Jesus’ interaction with a Samaritan woman. The lesson has much to teach, but perhaps the greatest truth that I was encouraged by is the fact that Jesus does not judge by appearances. He doesn’t judge by our past, he doesn’t judge by our ethnicity, he doesn’t judge by our social standing, he doesn’t judge by our gender, he doesn’t judge by our bank accounts, he doesn’t judge by any of the things by which man judges. He judges by our hearts. No matter who we are in this life, no matter what we have done in our past, no matter how great or how small society sees us, Jesus still gives us the choice to accept eternal life or not. I’m very thankful for this fact, because when I look around in society, I can see a lot of people who are more worthy candidates for salvation than me. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”– Rom. 5:8 Sometimes we can get angry at God’s sense of justice. Personally, I’m thankful for God’s sense of mercy. All of our past sin warrants us to spend eternity in hell and yet God still chose to save us. By all human standards, Jesus should have avoided this woman. Yet instead, he chose to save her. And by all human standards, Jesus should have avoided you and me. Yet instead, he chose to save us.
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