After having a conversation with someone, I was led to ponder many verses that I've read and try to make sense of them as they relate to the Life of a Christian; someone who is supposed to follow in the steps of Christ. It is an issue that has truly vexed my spirit in the many years since I have begun living for Him. It's not that I consider myself as "having it all together", or knowing the right thing to do in every situation, but it is my goal in life to try and walk as I believe Jesus would, according to what's written in the Word of God. I have seen and experienced the ineffectiveness, and sometimes damage, that the body of Christ can do, when they do NOT. It grieves my spirit so much; I can only imagine what my Lord and savior must feel. I realize there are many different reasons for all that goes on, or doesn't for that matter, but I just want to think about a few verses.
The first verse that comes into mind is, Luke 9:23 "Then to everyone He said, 'If anyone wants to come after me, let him say 'no' to himself, take up his cross daily and keep following me.'"
As I consider this verse and compare it to how most people are introduced to "becoming a Christian", I see a great contrast. Most people hear something like they need Jesus so their life will be better; Jesus will make everything new; God has a plan for you; God wants to bless you; you need Jesus so you can go to heaven; or Jesus can fill the emptiness in your heart. Right from the start, we expect something. We begin our spiritual pilgrimage with wrong thinking; with self-centered thinking. Now while there is some truth in each of these statements, they cannot be the reason we decide to follow Jesus, and walk in His footsteps. We need to know right up front there will be a cost, there must be sacrifice. In fact, the more I live it and the more I seek Him and the truth, the more I realize that the "emptiness in our heart" will stay, and the "newness of life" never comes, UNTIL we say no to ourselves DAILY, and are willing to sacrifice ALL to follow Him. Furthermore, we are not truly following Him if we are not living a life of daily sacrifice.
The next verse that I think of is John 15:18-20, which I will paraphrase for the sake of saving space. Jesus tells us that we are not of this world, He has picked us out of the world and because of this the world hates us. Most Christians are trying to avoid being hated, persecuted, or feeling "left out" or as if they're "missing out" on whatever the world is doing, and they stop following Jesus, in every aspect of their life. The first step to following Him, is to deny ourselves, but most choose to compromise and rationalize to please self, or feel accepted by others.
Another verse closely related to this issue is 1 John 2:15, "Do not love the world or the things of the world. If someone loves the world, then love for the Father is not in him." James shows us how this wrong thinking affects even our prayer life, "you pray and don't receive, because you pray with the wrong motive, that of wanting to indulge your own desires." Then he calls us "adulterers" and says that "loving the world is hating God, and choosing to be a friend of the world's makes us an enemy of God's. (James 4:3-5) That's a powerful statement that should cause us, as disciples, to examine our hearts and our lives.
Never in scripture are we told to "blend in", or to become like the world. We are told to be salt and light (Mt 5:13-16) ; for what good is salt if it loses its saltiness? and what good can a light do if it is hidden? We are told to come out and separate ourselves from everything that is unclean; to not enter into relationships with unbelievers for their is no fellowship between dark and light. (2 Cor 6:14-18).
Now the verse that started me thinking about the life of a believer; one who proclaims to follow in the steps of Jesus, is 1 Corinthians 9. Paul is talking about his passionate efforts to reach all people. He makes this statement "With all kinds of people I have become all kinds of things, so that in all kinds of circumstances I might save at least some of them." In the Jewish bible the terminology is "put myself in the position of". To put our self in the position of someone is to try and understand where they are coming from, so as not to pre-judge them or look down on them. I've heard of people who use this verse as an excuse or justification to do things that would not line up with the word of God, such as "Be holy for the Lord your God is holy." In everything we do, if we make it a practice to ask (with all sincerity) What would Jesus do? We would know, for instance, that we do not become drunk to "reach" the drunkards. We do not need to get high, to relate to people who are addicted. We do not need to dress the way the world dresses so that they will listen to us. We do not have to watch all kinds of movies and try to put a "christian twist" on them. We do not have to get tattoos and piercings, or mark our bodies as the pagans do, before they will understand what we want to share with them. We don't have to join a gang, commit murder, lie, steal or go with them to their "place of worship" to be able to share with them the Truth. We don't have to make our music sound like the "world's" so that they will want to worship the One True God. Our only responsiblity as a disciple of Christ is to walk in His steps, deny ourselves daily, and be filled with the Spirit of God; living a surrendered life waiting for Him to tell us what to do.
This became very clear to me as I watched a video clip of a spontaneous witnessing done by someone who was willing to cross cultural barriers, without changing how he dressed, looked and acted, to show compassion and concern for the lost. The result was two saved souls:
I like how Mario tells Kirk right off the start "we're from the ghetto", but Kirk doesn't care.
