On Becoming a Gracifist

Yesterday in our worship service, Pastor Jeff Boersma invented a new word: Gracifist.  He was preaching about Jesus’ teaching to turn the other cheek. Jeff wondered out loud if following this teaching made him a pacifist.  Jeff suggested that rather than being a pacifist, he was a gracifist. I love this word! Let’s unpack the difference between a pacifist and a gracifist.

A pacifist is a person opposed to war under any circumstances.  A pacifist resists all physical violence. Pacifism refuses to get involved by being a conscientious objector.  A gracfist, on the other hand, may or may not choose to go to war. But in either case, a gracifist will love their enemies.  A gracifist will actually seek the good of their enemies. Not because the enemy deserves it, but precisely because they don’t.  That’s what makes it grace. Gracifists return insults and offenses with kindness and generosity. A gracifist will forgive you quickly and without condition.  But the most important thing about a gracifist is this: they can give grace freely because they have received grace freely. The grace of God that is ours in Jesus Christ is at work in our lives.  Gracifists have been forgiven, loved, and shown kindness by Jesus when we were his enemies. Jesus is the ultimate gracifist. And we are becoming like him. Guess what that makes us?