When God Gives us “Gospel Glasses”

Faith Bosland

I wear glasses. Maybe you do too.

I’ve worn glasses so long now, most of the time I’m not conscious of them being on my face at all. But they have a big impact on how I see things. (Thank goodness!) I also have prescription sunglasses that I use for driving, which I sometimes forget to take off when I go inside, and then I wonder why things are so dark. I forget that my glasses are changing the way I see everything.

We all have a perspective on life that’s a lot like wearing glasses. We look at things through the lens of our experiences and beliefs, ideas we’ve formed about the world and how it works based on what’s happened to us and the people we know. The problem is that - guess what, other people have glasses too, ones that might cause them to see the same situation differently than me if their experience of the world has been different than mine. 

I might believe that my success has been due to my hard work and merit, and that the world works the same for other people. Those are my glasses, because that’s been my experience. For someone born into poverty, they may work hard their entire life, but still not experience enough success to escape their circumstances. I might believe that most people are treated fairly and equitably, because that’s how I’ve been treated. Someone else might have been treated unfairly throughout their life, been exploited by others, or see people in power as abusive. We might look at the same things, but see them very differently because we’re wearing different glasses. 

When I think of biases and assumptions - our glasses -  in Scripture, I think of Peter in Acts 10. His understanding of God had convinced him that certain foods were off limits, that Gentiles were to be avoided, and that Jews like him were, well, better. Peter was confident he knew how the world worked.

But God challenged Peter to take off his glasses and put on “Gospel glasses.” God ripped away his faulty understanding of what made people righteous, exposed his bias, and revealed newer, bigger truth: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts men from every nation under heaven who love him and do what is right.” (Acts 10:34-35)

God is a God of truth, justice, and wisdom. But our human understanding of the world can be affected by our glasses. The most important thing is to remember that we’re all wearing them - and to give God permission to remove our glasses, and give us newer, better, maybe radically different ones. 

Reflection Questions:

1. What do you think it was like for Peter to realize that God was radically challenging the way he saw Gentiles?

2. Have you ever encountered someone in a ministry situation that you were tempted to judge at first, but God challenged you to see them differently?

3. Have you ever had a conversation or formed a relationship that changed the way you saw an issue in your community?