I have had countless conversations with my wife geared entirely toward this thought: how can I say this the best way possible so that we don't ever have this conversation again? I've tried the time-honored traditions of threatening my children so they won't dare cross me or, when that hasn't worked, the equally time-tested option of bribing them to leave me alone. With other people, I've tried bullying and intimidating when I can get away with it, or ignoring and running away when I can't. All of these approaches have one thing in common: they are strategies for making sure people won't sin against me.
Simultaneously, they are strategies for making sure people never see the grace of God from me either. Being his ambassador means that when you sin against me, you should see a reflection of his grace in me. Small, to be sure, but an accurate picture of him nonetheless. Conversely, when I work to insulate myself from others' failings, I take away the context that would let them see a likeness of Christ's merciful response to sin. Keeping safe from others carries the steep price of preventing them from seeing Jesus and trusting me.
That means that if you want to love people well, you have to learn to see people sinning against you as normal, daily opportunities instead of unusual, unwanted interruptions. Without becoming paranoid, you should expect people to sin against you instead of being surprised when they do.
--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 63-64.
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