Glass houses

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” ~ Socrates

One of the things I have realized very quickly writing this blog is that your own words can come back to haunt you. For example; when you write about the sin of self righteousness or judgmentalism you (me) can conveniently forget that there is a fine line between being “self righteous about the self righteous” and speaking the truth in love; something my Pastor reminded me of just yesterday. Or you can write about not obscuring the Gospel and then pause and wonder if while you are taking your fellow Christians to task about a lack of love that you yourself are not obscuring the vision of the light of the world. It is no wonder that G.K. Chesterton stated; “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.” Although the truth of the matter is that we (I) make it more difficult than it really is and by complicating it we make the light burden and “easy yoke” (Matthew 11:28-30) of faith in Jesus Christ appear unattractive to those yet to take up the Cross.

Recently during a Wednesday prayer meeting we were discussing the joy we have through faith in Jesus Christ, and when we broke up to pray in small groups we were challenged to share what is something that robs us of our joy. Myself and a couple of other guys mentioned that we tend to lose our joy when our fellow Christians don’t live out the Gospel and do or say things that are less than encouraging or edifying. We all tend to forget that edifying each other is not just the cold hard facts of biblical instruction and correction but the definition includes the idea of building up and uplifting. Do we allow others to steal our joy? Worse yet are we the source of others losing theirs? That to me is a very sobering thought.

The truth of the matter is that I let some people and situations get to me or rob me of my joy. I mentioned yesterday the topic of obsessions, and if I am honest with myself and people that read this post I tend to obsess about my fellow Christians that are all truth and no love. But when I examine myself am I not showing them love or not “accepting them” by my attitude? Without a doubt we cannot let unChrist-like behavior and attitudes to continue and we should lovingly and patiently approach that individual on a one-on-one basis and gently tell them how they are robbing us or others of their joy. But we need to also carefully examine ourselves and make sure we do not have a log in our own eye while trying to wipe the speck out of theirs. (Matthew 7:1-5).

In his book “Respectable Sins” Jerry Bridges reminds us that there is no difference between egregious or what we would classify as “big” sins and the “little” or subtle sins that we tend to rationalize away. He states; “Whether we are unkind to someone else or unforgiving when someone is unkind to us, we grieve our Father’s heart.” He goes on to ask the reader how we will respond to our awareness of our sin. He states; “Will you deflect it onto other people who you see to be sinners?” How do we react when someone steals our joy? Do we gossip about them behind their back or tell others they need prayer? Bridges states; “If I gossip, I both tear down another person and corrupt the mind of my listener. If I complain about the difficult circumstances of my life, I impugn the sovereignty and goodness of God and tempt my listener to do the same.” Do your toes hurt as much as mine after reading that?

In Philippians 2 we have been called to have this mind which was in Christ Jesus who humbled himself and made himself of no reputation. He was willing to be falsely accused and lied about, openly mocked, had His motives questioned, thought to be mad by His family and the “religious” community, be physically abused and tortured and yet never lost His focus or His joy. The mental images that Hebrews 12:2 evokes are very humbling; who for the joy endured the cross and despised the shame. Yet I am so unwilling to act in kind. He endured that for me all the while knowing that I would serve Him at times ficklely and unfaithfully or be annoyed, impatient and unloving to the very people He came to die for.

I am very thankful that Jesus Christ does not treat me or view me the way I view others at various times. We all love to quote I John 4:19; “We love him because he first loved us.” But John under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit followed up that verse with; “If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” It is no coincidence these verses follow one another. I cannot control the actions and attitudes I encounter; but through the help of the indwelling Holy Spirit I can control how I will react.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” ~ Psalm 139:23-24