What if we considered Paul’s prayer for restoration central to what we seek in our relationships? What would happen in our neighborhoods, churches, businesses, and in our general approach to people if Paul’s closing reminder was a platform we would live by?

Each of Paul’s pictures offers a challenge to how we’ll choose to cope in the world.

We might work hard to get an education, form a reputation, develop a skill set, and produce a track record, all of it perhaps suggesting that we have earned our place of service. I suspect many may not be bold enough to say this is how they feel, but we likely act like it. But none of that is how Paul presented his approach to his ministry.

We will not win the world for Christ by any political platform or through any new way of thinking. Jesus views us all through the same redemptive lens and he calls us to respond to each other on that basis.