The world tells us that our fundamental identity is determined by our performance not by the performance of another (i.e., Jesus). It seduces us to believing (often unknowingly) that our main sense of significance is found in what we do or in what we’re involved in.
It might look like this: “God is pleased with me because I have given my life to caring for the least of these.” Now, does God smile at us when we care for orphans? Yes, but if the main way we sense his smile is by our efforts to care for orphans, then the chances are that we’ve become stained by the world.
If our primary sense of God’s smile upon us comes from our involvement in caring for the least of these, then it’s highly likely that to some extent our lives are performance-based rather than grace-based. In other words, it may be that my functional paradigm of Christian living is: “I share God’s heart for the orphans; therefore, God is pleased with me,” rather than “God is pleased with me because of Jesus; therefore, I am freed to care for the orphan.” There is a massive difference between these two ways of thinking. To think the first way is to be stained by the world. To think the second way is to be unstained by the world.
Read the rest.
2 comments:
Great post.
In Matt 7:21-23, it's kind of striking that Christ says the ones who will see the Kingdom of Heaven are the ones who do the Will of God; then it is the ones who say, "Didn't we DO this and that" who will be turned away, Him having never known them! It doesn't say, "They'll say, 'We believed/trusted in Christ, and did this...that and the other.'" Just the actions.
There is a fundamental greekness to this way of thinking. The unique thing about man is that he is both flesh and spirit. These things share a synergy that cannot be, nor was it ever supposed to be separated. It is what was meant by "If you love me, keep my commandments." "Faith without works is dead." You cannot compartmentalize a spiritual "act." To separate them is meaningless.
Sometimes the starving and cold cannot wait for you to realize that "oh, I've been set free to help you! Thank God that I figured that out. Now I can feed you and clothe you!!!!"
We are body and spirit. The full Christian life should be such a harmony of service and spirituality that he/she neither worries about earning the approval by the works of his hands, nor by earning the pious grace points by achieving the mental chi of knowing that "its Grace first!"
He or she simply obeys the command: "Feed my sheep."
Post a Comment