I was reading an article on the abc news site the other day about China’s social credit system.
Essentially you get credit for ‘good works’ as defined by the state and lose credits for ‘bad works’, again as defined by the state.
It got me thinking about how we treat each other – do we work on a ‘credit’ system? Do we pay back what we get? What would it mean to pay back all the good and pay back all the bad?
One of the freedoms of the gospel is the notion of grace – that God is not a credit system taking down marks and awarding gold stars. Instead God is described as an overflowing well, a loving father, a protective hen. The notion of earning God’s love or approval is not part of God’s economy.
What could the world be like if we were channels of this kind of love – an overflowing well – rather than a systems of losses and gains?