Breaking the "Us vs. Them" Barrier

0:00This is Battle Drill Daily Devotional, your host is Rob West repain of the Salvation Army. Let's explore God's Word together in just a few minutes. For more devotionals, visit BattleDrillDevotional.com Today I want us to think about walls, not the sturdy brick walls of your home or the walls in our gardens. I'm talking about the invisible walls that we build in our hearts. We all have them, don't we? It's a very human thing to do, to build barriers, to know in our hearts who's in and who's out. We create these little circles of people like us. We feel safe when we do that, it makes the world seem tidy with everything and everyone in its place. But that's not how Jesus lived. When we look at his life in the Bible, we see a man who spent his whole life knocking these walls down. Think again about the story of Jesus at the well. It was the middle of the day. The sun was high and the day was hot.

1:00Jesus was tired from his long journey on foot. A woman came to draw water from the well. Now, according to the rules of the time, Jesus should not have spoken to her. He was a Jewish man, she was a Samaritan woman. In those days, those two groups just did not mix. They had hugely different histories, different ways of worship, and deep pain in her between them. Most people would have turned their heads away and ignored the woman. They would have walked past her in cold, sullen silence. But Jesus didn't see that barrier. He didn't see a Samaritan or a stranger. He saw a person. He saw a daughter of God. He saw someone who was thirsty for more than just water. And he was the one who spoke first. He asked her for a drink. And in that one simple kind act. He built a bridge right over the wall that had stood between the Jews and the Samaritans for hundreds of years.

2:01His grace didn't wait for her to change. His grace didn't wait for her to move. His grace moved towards her. Paul wrote about this later in his letter to the church in Galatia explaining to them that Jesus changed everything. Galatians chapter 3 verse 28 says, There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. What a hopeful message. It means that in God's family the labels that the world gives us don't matter. Our bank balance, the color of our skin, where we were born or what job we do. None of these things change our value to God. We are all loved with the same, deep, high, narrow and wide love of God. So what does this look like for us on a Tuesday? Following Jesus isn't just about what we do in our church building. It's about how we live in our neighborhoods, our schools and our workplaces.

3:03It's about what we call whole life discipleship. It shows up when we're standing in the queue at the supermarket. How do we look at the person who's struggling with packing their trolley? It shows up in the office when someone new starts who's very different from us. Do we open our circle to include them? Or do we keep it shut? If Jesus grace is a bridge then as His followers we are called to be bridge builders. We cannot say that we love God while we keep our hearts closed to the people that He made. Real holiness is found in how we treat the people the world tells us to ignore. I want to leave you with a small challenge today. Let's be quiet for a moment. Ask God to show you a barrier you might have built in your heart. Is there someone you find it hard to be kind to? Is there someone you've decided it is just too different from you?

4:03Once you see that barrier, ask God for the help to take one small step towards that person today. It doesn't have to be a big speech. Perhaps it's just a warm smile. Perhaps it's a short prayer for them while you load the dishwasher or wash the dishes. Or maybe it's just choosing to listen instead of walking away. Jesus is already there on the other side of that wall waiting for us to join Him. Let's try to see people through His eyes today. And join me tomorrow for day three of this series as we look at the unearned gift of God. Thanks for joining us for today's Battle Drill Daily Devotional. Don't forget to subscribe and share this devotional with someone who might need a boost of faith. For more devotionals and resources, visit BattleDrillDivational.com.