Threat is actually a very relevant term depending upon how alert we are choosing to be in our world right now. If we think of how we are wired, listening and responding becomes much more acute when threat is attached: from an exasperated parent to gain a response of obedience, to a boss’ ultimatum to gain a response of increased production, to a fed-up spouse to gain a response of changing an addiction…but realistically we move onto the sheer terror realm coming into our ears of those who will not reason with us in spite of any response we would give.
In an earlier dream world, a lot of us thought we should have the right to live without threat, and when we detected the slightest one being verbalized toward us, we would consider law enforcement. It is now more evident than ever that our lives stand underneath a growing statement of Threat?
Are we slowly becoming defined as a people of the Threat? Were we made to be a people only responsive when threat is involved? Should we respond to threat? We realize we cannot even lift up a valid expression of the Bible without acknowledging each Bible writer was moved by God to warn and even at times threaten. If we don’t want to be a people of the Threat, what type of person must we be? Or is there even an alternative?
The power to liberate is grace. Are we a people of understanding grace, a people of grace? Even if seems just a crawl space of freedom to exercise it in this violent world, it is the way of grace, learning grace. “It is good for the heart to grow strong on grace… (Heb 13:9),” “we are not under law, but under grace (Rom 6:4),” “[the Gospel] has also been bearing fruit and growing among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth (Col 1:6).”
What does understanding grace teach me? Grace teaches me that I have a freedom in my response to threat, a freedom only I can exercise for myself. No one can take that away unless I let them. Grace teaches me that the Son has honored me and called me into the same relationship He had with the Father: John 15:10 “If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commandments and remain in His love.” Grace teaches me that it is my privilege to obey my Father because I love Him, and that coercion is not His ideal for getting loving obedience from me. Grace teaches me that there is no more earning His approval in Jesus, even though there is great effort.
So, if Threat inevitably becomes a shadow over our times to bend us into being Its people, can we now make the decision to let our hearts grow strong on grace (Heb 13:9)? If things become more violent than any of us desire, can we determine to be a people of grace?
“I should hear that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, by contending side by side for the faith of the gospel, 1:28 and by not being intimidated in any way by your opponents. This is a sign of their destruction, but of your salvation – a sign which is from God.” (Phil 1:28)