Dual dangers accompany the setting up of any list that describes specific do’s and don’t’s. Those dual dangers are pride and despair. If I am able to keep my resolutions, I feel smug and proud, with a tendency to look down on others. If I fail, I feel like a failure, defeated and worthless.
This is why I must keep the cross at the forefront of my consciousness. Throughout the day, I’m required to pay attention to many people and tasks, but whenever my mind finds a few moments of leisure, I want to discipline it to fly back to the Lord.
The cross leaves me no room for pride or despair. How can I be prideful when I remember my Lord died for me? How can I despair when I remember my Lord died for me?
“The Law is good, if one uses it lawfully,” wrote Paul (1 Timothy 1:8). There are several lawful uses of the Law. One is to provide the soil for love to grow. What? The soil for love to grow? That seems paradoxical at first. What does the Law have to do with love? You can’t command love, can you? Sure you can. God does: “Love the Lord your God!”
Jesus taught his disciples what would happen during the end times. In Matthew 24:12, Jesus said, “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.” What is the connection between lawlessness and love growing cold? A lawless place is a selfish place. Where anarchy reigns, people have to look out for themselves. It is axiomatic that it takes a much more monumental effort to show love where your rights and safety and under threat.
Law does not equal love. But love is encouraged by social order and peace. Perhaps the anarchy the characterizes much of South Asia is why most people’s love here has grown cold.
A real danger exists for those of us who have left lives of relative comfort, left our families, and endure the hardships of another culture. We are tempted to set up a new standard or law by which to stratify levels of Christians. This would be an unlawful use of the Law. When I use the Law to measure who’s better and who’s worse, I’ve lost sight of the cross. I can’t use involvement in missions as a litmus test for those who are really sold out to the Lord. If I do, then the words of James 2:4 apply to me, “Have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?”
So today, I continue the exercise of coming into the Light by exposing my words to God’s holy scrutiny.
Today I add, “Am I comparing myself to others?”
I can expand this by asking, “Am I sizing people up?” “Am I trying to determine where they fall on some imaginary scale of spiritual maturity?” “Am I measuring my own value in reference to someone else?” “Do my words betray an inner game of evaluating others or comparing myself to them?”
If at any time the answer is yes, I must immediately confess this as a hideous sin. Jesus is my reference point. If my scale ranks holiness from one to ten, and I score an 8, then I’m doing pretty good. But if my standard is God’s infinite holiness, then any score fails to even register in comparison. A score of 8 won’t even show up if depicted on a bar graph with a scale of 1 to 10,000, much less with a scale 1 to infinity! God’s holiness drives me to the cross.
The way to life is only found at a place of death, the cross, because only there am I confronted by God’s justice and mercy. Pride withers in the light of justice and despair evaporates in the light of mercy. O Lord, may I bask in this light that brings life.
This is why I must keep the cross at the forefront of my consciousness. Throughout the day, I’m required to pay attention to many people and tasks, but whenever my mind finds a few moments of leisure, I want to discipline it to fly back to the Lord.
The cross leaves me no room for pride or despair. How can I be prideful when I remember my Lord died for me? How can I despair when I remember my Lord died for me?
“The Law is good, if one uses it lawfully,” wrote Paul (1 Timothy 1:8). There are several lawful uses of the Law. One is to provide the soil for love to grow. What? The soil for love to grow? That seems paradoxical at first. What does the Law have to do with love? You can’t command love, can you? Sure you can. God does: “Love the Lord your God!”
Jesus taught his disciples what would happen during the end times. In Matthew 24:12, Jesus said, “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.” What is the connection between lawlessness and love growing cold? A lawless place is a selfish place. Where anarchy reigns, people have to look out for themselves. It is axiomatic that it takes a much more monumental effort to show love where your rights and safety and under threat.
Law does not equal love. But love is encouraged by social order and peace. Perhaps the anarchy the characterizes much of South Asia is why most people’s love here has grown cold.
A real danger exists for those of us who have left lives of relative comfort, left our families, and endure the hardships of another culture. We are tempted to set up a new standard or law by which to stratify levels of Christians. This would be an unlawful use of the Law. When I use the Law to measure who’s better and who’s worse, I’ve lost sight of the cross. I can’t use involvement in missions as a litmus test for those who are really sold out to the Lord. If I do, then the words of James 2:4 apply to me, “Have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?”
So today, I continue the exercise of coming into the Light by exposing my words to God’s holy scrutiny.
Today I add, “Am I comparing myself to others?”
I can expand this by asking, “Am I sizing people up?” “Am I trying to determine where they fall on some imaginary scale of spiritual maturity?” “Am I measuring my own value in reference to someone else?” “Do my words betray an inner game of evaluating others or comparing myself to them?”
If at any time the answer is yes, I must immediately confess this as a hideous sin. Jesus is my reference point. If my scale ranks holiness from one to ten, and I score an 8, then I’m doing pretty good. But if my standard is God’s infinite holiness, then any score fails to even register in comparison. A score of 8 won’t even show up if depicted on a bar graph with a scale of 1 to 10,000, much less with a scale 1 to infinity! God’s holiness drives me to the cross.
The way to life is only found at a place of death, the cross, because only there am I confronted by God’s justice and mercy. Pride withers in the light of justice and despair evaporates in the light of mercy. O Lord, may I bask in this light that brings life.
Comments
Post a Comment