It would be easy for us to say, “I am just a sinner, saved by God’s grace so it doesn’t really matter what I do because God will still love me, forgive me, and extend His grace to me.”
It would be easy, but it also would be a lie.
To further facilitate this point I would like to share something from my “John Wesley Common English Study Bible” :
For John Wesley, there was both an inward and outward dimension to personal holiness. Inward holiness refers to the cleansing and renewing of our hearts and minds, which begins with faith. When we recognize God’s forgiving love in Jesus Christ, we are filled with love for God. Out of this love, the Holy Spirit cultivates thoughts and habits in us that are pleasing to God, including the love of our neighbors.
To make it simple.
If you are a true believer and devoted disciple of Jesus Christ then your life should reflect that. It should be completely obvious that you are a disciple to a perfect stranger by the way you act in all things. Now, the rub in this is that we will never do this perfectly, but thanks be to God that is why He extends grace, but as John Wesley implies when God extends His grace you extend it as well.
The operative process is that God loves us, then we love God, and then we make it our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
Let’s settle for that.
Amen.