Revelation tells of saints from all kinds of backgrounds all having washed their robes, standing before the throne of God (the Father), and before the Lamb.
The Father’s love transcends denominational or non-denominational boundaries. Even moral boundaries. He loves people of various kinds of ethical codes and moral standards. He truly loves individuals we might think are outsiders. The love of the Father is the root of righteousness because it is that love by which He adopts some to be His children and to whom He shows His great mercy.
The Lamb, the Son, Jesus, is so like his Father. He too show this kind of love transcending boundaries. He took in a tax collector as an apostle, plus a Zealot too. Opposite in their moral codes and outlooks. Then Paul, a Christian-persecuting Pharisee, full of principles on how to keep the law but utterly devoid of love towards Jesus and his apostles. Peter had to try to get along with Paul and they had their differences, but none differed with Paul as much as James the Just. Jesus showed love across the boundaries of what each of these lived my, plus he took under his wing some prostitutes, adulteresses, Samaritans, eventually even Romans. They all found refuge in his love under his wings of grace. He said, to the consternation of the Jews, “I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.” (Luke 4:25-26)
Jesus sent Paul to the Gentiles, to Greeks, and he and others since him went to all kinds of people in all kinds of backgrounds. It is this transcendent love which unites those the Father adopts, and Jesus calls, and it provides the basis for keeping God’s commandments in how each treats and regards each other, with truth guiding all these ways. It is this love by which God sent His Son as light to guide life, and as provision for sin by death on a cross, and as eternal Lord and Christ by resurrection from the dead. This is the true root of faith and righteous living from the Father, mirrored in His beloved Son.
