The Consequence of Grace

“Is it our duty or our responsibility as Christians to look after the prisoners and their families?”, someone had asked me. The term duty or responsibility didn’t quite sit comfortably in my head as I processed that question. To say yes would be to refute God’s grant of free-will to humanity. Something of this act of charity towards the imprisoned requires not a decision of the mind but of a changed heart. It cannot be an imposition, because frankly, who could love the most unlovable and possibly the hardened and the most hideous of criminals?

We are able to love those who are repugnant it’s because Jesus first loved us. The grace we received undeserved is the same grace that we are able to extend to those who thinks that they are beyond forgiveness. All of us are in need of that saving grace manifested through the death of Jesus. For we were once slaves to sin (Romans 6). So it’s really not about whether it’s a Christian responsibility or duty, it’s because we love Christ…..for only love can ‘cover a multitude of sins’ (1 Peter 4:8). The perfect love that is of Christ in us.

“let him know that he [she] who turns a sinner from the error of his [her] way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.” James 5:20 (NKJV)


“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him [Jesus Christ] might be saved.” John 3:16a,17 (NKJV)