How Can You Be Perfect?

Colossians 1: ²⁸We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. ²⁹To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.

What is Paul saying? Can we be perfect? Should we work harder at being a good christian so we are made perfect? I can see from this passage you could mis-interpret it this way. But read on! You and I can not be perfect…a part from Christ living in you. And it goes on to say that we labor and work…with HIS power, not our power. DO NOT read this passage as something else. This is one of the greatest explanations of how we operate in and through Jesus. STOP trying and START living in him.

How does this work in our life? The more you try in your own strength, the more you will get wasted. The more you give up and surrender your life the Christ, the more power he will give you. This is totally counterintuitive but it’s true. If you labor for your agenda, you labor in vain, if you labor for his agenda, you have his strength. Again, counterintuitive. I love it!

Imitators

Ephesians 5

Walk in Love

¹Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

Paul is teaching the Ephesians how to act and treat one another. He says a profound yet simple statement, Be like God because He loves you. What I love the most about this statement is not the part that says we need to imitate God, but we do it because He loves us and we love him.

It’s like my sons, they imitate what I do because they love me and they know I love them. It’s the greatest form of flattery. This is a great message for father’s and son’s. Dad, listen, your sons are watch you, give them something to imitate!

God, let me be an imitator of you so my sons will imitate you too!

Your hair is on fire…

Proverbs 25

²¹ If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat,
and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink,
²²for you will heap burning coals on his head,
and the LORD will reward you.

Bible Knowledge Commentary says, “Kindness to one’s enemy-giving him food and water-is like heaping burning coals on his head (quoted by Paul in Rom. 12:20). Sometimes a person’s fire went out and he needed to borrow some live coals to restart his fire. Giving a person coals in a pan to carry home “on his head” was a neighborly, kind act; it made friends, not enemies. Also the kindness shown in giving someone food and water makes him ashamed of being an enemy, and brings God’s blessing on the benefactor. Compassion, not revenge, should characterize believers (cf. Prov. 24:29). Alternately, light on this passage may come from an Egyptian expiation ritual, in which a person guilty of some wrongdoing would carry a pan of burning coals on his head as a sign of his repentance. Thus treating one’s enemy kindly may cause him to repent.”

What I love most about the Bible is how it is so counterintuitive to the ways of this world. It never ceases to amaze me how it can totally contradict what we would feel is the right way to handle a situation. Here, in Proverbs 25 we see that the best way to deal with an enemy is to show them kindness. It even goes on to say that when we do they will be shamed into repentance. It doesn’t matter if you are in your car, at the grocery store, and the little league field with the kids, at church, at work, at the movies, there will be a point in your day when someone is going to take you to the edge. Remember this passage, kill them with kindness, do the opposite of your fleshly instincts. In doing so, you will at the very least please God, and in the process maybe even make a friend.

God, thank you for being different from this world. I pray that today, when the opportunity presents itself, I will be able to love on someone who needs it.

Stumbling Blocks

Romans 14:¹³Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.

Observation: Paul is talking to both new Christians, and Christians with a Jewish heritage. One may have strict convictions about what is “lawful” to eat, while the other doesn’t really care. Put both of those people in a room and there may be some disagreement. But is the disagreement worth the relationship? No, Paul is arguing that it just isn’t worth hurting a relationship because of something like food or drink. He also encourage us to not cause another brother to stumble because of what one may or may not find lawful. This creates a great divide. I can spend every hour of my day trying to offend or cause someone to stumble, when is enough, enough? I think this is where the tension of legalism comes into play.

A pastor who I greatly respect as a man of God told me legalism is when someone places their standards for righteousness as a judgement for someone else. For example, say I think that a good christian should read the bible 2 hours a day. I meet another christian who only reads 1 hour a day. If I tell them they are less righteous because they are not reading 2 hours a day, I become legalistic. Right is right? whatever God tells YOU to do. He didn’t tell the other person the same thing He told you. So when I place my the standards God has called for my life on someone else I begin to get legalistic.

Paul was probably dealing with a fair amount of legalism in his day. Romans 14 addresses a bit of this legalism. So lets deal with causing another to “stumble.” Here’s the problem with this application today. I need to discern for myself what may cause someone else to stumble. The problem is that other people try to discern for me or you what may cause someone else to stumble. Example, I’m out with a friend and he drinks an alcoholic beverage. I choose not to drink, but I see a few people in the room we both know. I then proceed to tell my friend who is drinking that he better stop because he may cause someone to stumble. I’m not sure I should be in that position to tell him that, maybe he needs to hear that from the Lord. It can get out of hand. One time I had a guy at church tell me I needed to shave my beard because I looked like a hippie and I may cause one of the church followers to stumble looking that way…seriously!

So what do we do…always fall on this side of grace and love!

Playing By The Rules

Romans 13 Submission to the Authorities

¹Let every person^(A) be subject to the governing authorities. For^(B) there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. ²Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 

When you read this passage it doesn’t really seem mind-blowing until you realize that Paul is saying this to Christians during the time of Nero, a horrible, evil ruler (Paul wrote Romans around 54-57 AD while Nero took over the throne from Claudius in 54 till 68 AD). Nero is the same guy who burned Rome just to blame in on the Christians. He executed his mother and step-brother. So, Paul is still teaching Christians to follow with full obedience during a time when you and I would think we have every right to rebel. Yet, Paul tells them to obey the laws of the land, to pay taxes, and to not be in debt, because when we do these things we are also pleasing God.

What is my application for this? There are the obvious, that I need to obey laws, I need to pay taxes, etc., but I think the real point is our heart and the spirit of this whole thing. We should live a life-style that is pleasing to God and with that, learning to obey is a big part. Why would God expect obedience from us to him, and then not ask us to practice obedience any where else? He wouldn’t. The life of a Christian is about the heart, and learning to defeat the cravings of the flesh, through the spirit.

God, let me be a citizen and a christian who is pleasing to my earthly leaders and my heavenly leader.