There are higher things in the kingdom of heaven

“Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated?”

– 1 Corinthians 6:7

It’s not exactly a verse you’re going to find on a placard at the home decor store.

Truly, it is an enormous check on the heart right here – a huge question, and a hard question to ask.

And it cuts straight to the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ in what He came to earth to do.

We tend to get so hung up on our individual rights, where the scriptures ask plainly: “Why do you not rather accept the wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated?”

There are much higher things in the kingdom of heaven than right and wrong.

And don’t misunderstand – there is very clearly right and wrong when it comes to things of God. There is a hard line as it pertains to righteousness and sin.

But as it comes to our personal relationships – who we are as we walk through this world – where inevitably people will do the wrong things to us – there are higher things than pressing our own rights.

What is true is that Jesus was right, and we were wrong.

And yet, He laid down His life for us, in our wrongness, that we might be made right.

That is the heart of God.

And, frankly, it is the heart with which we are called to live in this world.

The heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is beyond worldly wisdom. It’s beyond the courts of human justice. It’s beyond our understanding of right and wrong. And it runs so contrary to basic human nature.

There is a power in the gospel that we cannot explain. The cross of Jesus Christ speaks a truth and conveys a power that we can’t begin to quantify with our understanding.

And at its heart, it comes down to one laying down their life for another – specifically that the other might be made right.

It is the pattern of our Lord. It must be the pattern of His church. It must be the pattern of our lives.

In 1 Peter 2:21, we read, “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps.”

He left us an example. We should readily and willingly follow His steps.

In whatever conflicts arise in our lives, whatever issues we inevitably will run into, are we looking to be justified? Or are we looking to be reconciled?

Grace offered – even in the smallest discernible measure – it will speak immeasurable volumes about the beauty and the depth and the love of God to whoever receives that grace.

Joey Crandall is the pastor at Calvary Chapel Carson Valley.