1 Corinthians 16:14
That alone shows me how far I fall from holiness, but also how rich I am in grace!
It's a good litmus test, these sorts of directives (the book of James is one of many to measure holiness and grace as well). They help keep me in step with the Spirit when things get a bit muddled.
They're also a good reality check for what love is. I have to ask myself what love looks like for me, as in when have I felt and been assured most that I was loved by someone. Thats honestly the best and only measure we have in giving love as well. If I say that I believe God loves me, and I give reason for it in the cross (the death of His Son for me) then love to me means laying down my life for the other. It means being humiliated or rejected by someone and still laying my life down for them. That's love. And that's a reminder to me for how far I fall from true holiness, but simultaneously how deeply steeped I am in God's vibrant life-giving grace.
When I consider verses like these, I also keep in mind where actual transformation has taken place in my life. Just going to church or praying more or being in seminary have nothing to do with change. Anyone could do those things and still be as unchanged and cold hearted and apathetic towards God as someone who didn't do those things.
"But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without favoritism and hypocrisy."
James 3:17
So then I take a moment to quiet my mind and examine the small turns and indents of my attitude towards others, my reactions, my feelings, my desires, and my discontents. What was driving me at some given moment that I may have experienced disappointment or anger? Those are the areas still in need of the transforming gift of the Holy Spirit.
And who are some people for which I genuinely feel compliant for, meaning I agree and desire to see their desires met with my help?
Who am I full of real mercy and not arrogance towards? Who owes me kindness or money or respect or something, yet all of sudden I can be with them and enjoy being with them without having been given those things?
Who do I now spend quality time with that I didn't before- without favoritism, or in other words I feel the same love for them as those I have naturally loved and naturally spent time with to grab lunch or watch a movie?
Who are some people that I have noticed, through examination of the past to now, that have gone from someone who annoyed me or angered me to someone who is now a peaceful and loving person to be around?
When I consider these things I realize NOT MUCH has changed!
Hahaha but a very small percentage of who I was to who I am now is different in those aspects, and it may feel like a tremendous transformation because going from any pitch black dark to glorious light is so noticeable to oneself; especially as one starts outwardly showing these things via prayer, church attendance, and so forth. These outward expressions of our faith are indeed good and helpful indicators of change, but they are certainly not where our confidence should be. Anyone can kneel down and say a prayer or put on a pretty dress and go to church or volunteer to feed the homeless. But it takes something more to do those things with actual excitement and genuine love--love that would that would take criticism and judgment by others and still love! Love that would understand when someone else is being cruel or hurtful to them due to an area of that person's heart that has not experienced the love that you have from God when you were in your sin, and therefore instead of indifference you feel compassion towards them and ask God how you can gently respond with the same kind of love God responds to us in our fits of anger or cruelty. That kind of love! The kind that often takes me a while to give because I have to think about it. The kind that is always met with an initial desire to get indignant or upset or annoyed!...the kind that requires thoughtful prayer on the spot. That kind of love.
These verses help us from deceiving ourselves into thinking we've made it as perfect Christians or even as better Christians than before.
If anything they show us how far we really fall from where we need to be in order to be with God, but yet they fill us with the profound depth of how much grace God lavishes on us as we boldly approach Him in the righteousness and perfect holiness of Jesus, His Son. We fall short and yet we have God in us, with us, as our Father! How? Only because of what Christ did for us. So then, these verses show us, more than our feelings and external behaviors, what we have been given not how far we have come.
The Word of God is not meant to pat us on the back or kick us in the rears to make us obey, but rather it is the light that shows us how loved we are despite ourselves.
Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
James 4:15
Which is glorious good news for the person that knows with a twinkle in their eye that the Lord who wills is the very Lord who loves them.
I am praying that today more people surrender to verses like these and know the grace and love of God our Father.
Jmegrey.
No comments:
Post a Comment