Romans Chapter 14 cont'd
I know by personal revelation from the Lord Jesus, that no material thing is intrinsically evil, but to the person who views it as unholy, it really is for him. If your fellow believer's heart is grieved by observing your liberty to eat anything, then you're not doing what love would dictate. Don't crush another believer's spirit by your not sacrificing a petty liberty when Christ sacrificed his very life for him! Be concerned about even good things you do that are easily misconstrued as being improper.
For the Kingdom of God cannot be reduced to personal and cultural preferences like habits of eating and drinking, but it is defined by the transcendent realities of righteousness, peace and joy which are inseparably linked to the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit.
If you will embrace these values in your service for Christ, you will have favor with and affirmation from both God and others.
Comments:
The passage above paints a picture of the true freedom enjoyed by the children of God. We are liberated in our hearts to receive and embrace all the good gifts of our heavenly Father that he has provided for us through his creation. In fact, we are so free and our perspective is so keen, that we are able to actually "see" the crowning touch of the original creation...other human beings that are made in his image. We are so free, that We would quickly sacrifice a legitimate use of something God has made, if another still views that use as illegitimate. Children of God are so free that they are behaviorally flexible and adaptable in the various relational/cultural environments and situations of life...all for the higher purpose and priority of loving and connecting with others for the honor of Christ.
Do you find it odd that the same "behavior" in two people can either be proper or improper in the eyes of God depending on the state of the consciences...the perspectives...of those two individuals? This principle, of course, does not apply to all behaviors...but to the "non-essentials" of life...cultural preferences, as I call them. (What kinds of behaviors do you think might be on such a list?! I remember being a bit culturally challenged when our family was eating dinner with one of the most godly and humble men I have ever met. He had been imprisoned for his faith in China for over 20 years simply because he wouldn't "say" to the prison officials, "I don''t believe in Jesus." In joyful celebration of the gift of food we were enjoying, he boldly belched several times during our meal...with a big smile on his face! My grandmother would have been mortified. It wasn't quite as easy to tell my young children to "behave" themselves at dinner after that!)
I actually find this Romans 14 "way of God" intriguing and joy-inspiring. It counters the temptation for me to know and control everything in my world. It challenges my fleshly desire to precisely know, ahead of time, what the right course will be for me and/or others to take. When it comes to these kinds of matters, the "code" for living in the genuine freedom of the children of God is not written on stones, or comprehensively recorded in a book of the Bible. Rather, it is "encoded" into the renewed heart and mind of an individual child of God by the Holy Spirit himself who indwells her or him. The child of God is encouraged to continually be alive and alert to the Spirit of God who is also alive and moving within their being in real time. We grow to learn to "mind" the Holy Spirit, as children "mind" their parents. We are not actually called to live by a "code", but by "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus". By this we discover the "mind of Christ".
It is this dynamic that will inform us...in every situation where we are placed by our Father..."What the love of Jesus looks like right here and right now?" And knowing this and living it out is true freedom!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 97
Romans Chapter 14 cont'd
I know by personal revelation from the Lord Jesus, that no material thing is intrinsically evil, but to the person who views it as unholy, it really is for him. If your fellow believer's heart is grieved by observing your liberty to eat anything, then you're not doing what love would dictate. Don't crush another believer's spirit by your not sacrificing a petty liberty when Christ sacrificed his very life for him! Be concerned about even good things you do that are easily misconstrued as being improper.
For the Kingdom of God cannot be reduced to personal and cultural preferences like habits of eating and drinking, but it is defined by the transcendent realities of righteousness, peace and joy which are inseparably linked to the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit.
If you will embrace these values in your service for Christ, you will have favor with and affirmation from both God and others.
Comments:
Romans 14 is the apostolic manifesto on liberty and freedom in Christ. In order for us to enjoy the liberty Christ has purchased for us, we need to have our minds renewed and our consciences strengthened regarding the nature of true spirituality.
This necessarily begins with an exposure of "dualism". Dualism is the philosophy of life based in fear-driven and man-made religion that presumes that the visible/material world is intrinsically evil, while the invisible/immaterial world is intrinsically holy. Out of this philosophical goop come all sorts of weird religious practices, rituals, sacrifices, forms or worship and, ironically, both extreme abstinences and indulgences. The goal of dualism is to find ways to either escape or ignore the visible realm in order to connect with the invisible realm and be "spiritual". Thank God, there is no hint of dualism, or the superstitions that spin off from it, in the minds of Christ and his apostles.
The spiritual disciplines of Scripture that encourage the reasonable, temporary, healthy, rhythmic and graceful denial of earthly pleasures in order to "make more room" for the pursuit of transcendent pleasures in Christ, is trampled upon and overrun by a conscious or repressed, yet guilt-driven and toxic, religious extremism. Dualism is found in many religions of the world, but it has also assaulted the Church from her earliest days. Both Paul and John fought against the insidious encroachments of dualism (specifically...gnosticism) upon the believing communities in their epistles.
True spirituality in Christ, gratefully acknowledges that all that God has made is good and that the proper use of the material world to further the goal of loving, in concrete ways, both God and neighbor is holy by nature. It acknowledges that both the visible and invisible realms have been infected by sin. It acknowledges that Jesus Christ came to purge both realms of evil through his birth, life, ministry, death on the cross, resurrection, ascension and gift of the Holy Spirit. It acknowledges that Jesus Christ has inaugurated a new creation...a new heavens wedded to a new earth...that is, mysteriously, already present, though not yet fully realized.
The blessings and pleasures that flow from the proper use...and cultivation...of God's creation are to become sources of inspiration for thanksgiving to and joy before our Creator without a fear of falling into idolization of the creation. Such "priestly" human lives become both a living witness and a sure prophecy to the entire cosmos of the reality of the renewed creation that will ultimately swallow up sin and death...in all it forms. We are called to worship the Giver and enjoy his good gifts. This honors God, our souls, our bodies and our human relations.
1 Tim 4:4
For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving....
Col 2:20-23
If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits (i.e. superstitions) of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— "Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch" referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
James 1:17
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
Luke 1:74-75
(God brought his Son into the world)...to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
I know by personal revelation from the Lord Jesus, that no material thing is intrinsically evil, but to the person who views it as unholy, it really is for him. If your fellow believer's heart is grieved by observing your liberty to eat anything, then you're not doing what love would dictate. Don't crush another believer's spirit by your not sacrificing a petty liberty when Christ sacrificed his very life for him! Be concerned about even good things you do that are easily misconstrued as being improper.
For the Kingdom of God cannot be reduced to personal and cultural preferences like habits of eating and drinking, but it is defined by the transcendent realities of righteousness, peace and joy which are inseparably linked to the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit.
If you will embrace these values in your service for Christ, you will have favor with and affirmation from both God and others.
Comments:
Romans 14 is the apostolic manifesto on liberty and freedom in Christ. In order for us to enjoy the liberty Christ has purchased for us, we need to have our minds renewed and our consciences strengthened regarding the nature of true spirituality.
This necessarily begins with an exposure of "dualism". Dualism is the philosophy of life based in fear-driven and man-made religion that presumes that the visible/material world is intrinsically evil, while the invisible/immaterial world is intrinsically holy. Out of this philosophical goop come all sorts of weird religious practices, rituals, sacrifices, forms or worship and, ironically, both extreme abstinences and indulgences. The goal of dualism is to find ways to either escape or ignore the visible realm in order to connect with the invisible realm and be "spiritual". Thank God, there is no hint of dualism, or the superstitions that spin off from it, in the minds of Christ and his apostles.
The spiritual disciplines of Scripture that encourage the reasonable, temporary, healthy, rhythmic and graceful denial of earthly pleasures in order to "make more room" for the pursuit of transcendent pleasures in Christ, is trampled upon and overrun by a conscious or repressed, yet guilt-driven and toxic, religious extremism. Dualism is found in many religions of the world, but it has also assaulted the Church from her earliest days. Both Paul and John fought against the insidious encroachments of dualism (specifically...gnosticism) upon the believing communities in their epistles.
True spirituality in Christ, gratefully acknowledges that all that God has made is good and that the proper use of the material world to further the goal of loving, in concrete ways, both God and neighbor is holy by nature. It acknowledges that both the visible and invisible realms have been infected by sin. It acknowledges that Jesus Christ came to purge both realms of evil through his birth, life, ministry, death on the cross, resurrection, ascension and gift of the Holy Spirit. It acknowledges that Jesus Christ has inaugurated a new creation...a new heavens wedded to a new earth...that is, mysteriously, already present, though not yet fully realized.
The blessings and pleasures that flow from the proper use...and cultivation...of God's creation are to become sources of inspiration for thanksgiving to and joy before our Creator without a fear of falling into idolization of the creation. Such "priestly" human lives become both a living witness and a sure prophecy to the entire cosmos of the reality of the renewed creation that will ultimately swallow up sin and death...in all it forms. We are called to worship the Giver and enjoy his good gifts. This honors God, our souls, our bodies and our human relations.
1 Tim 4:4
For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving....
Col 2:20-23
If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits (i.e. superstitions) of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— "Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch" referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
James 1:17
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
Luke 1:74-75
(God brought his Son into the world)...to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 96
Romans Chapter 14 cont'd
So how can we condemn or disregard our fellow believers? For we shall all have our individual turn before the judgment seat of Christ. The scripture says, "As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before me, and every person will verbally acknowledge what is true to God." Every one of us will give an account of ourselves to God. So let's not get sidetracked by critically evaluating each other, but zero in on evaluating what is critical- how we can avoid causing another believer to get tripped up by any insensitive attitudes or actions on our part.
I know by personal revelation from the Lord Jesus, that no material thing is intrinsically evil, but to the person who views it as unholy, it really is for him. If your fellow believer's heart is grieved by observing your liberty to eat anything, then you're not doing what love would dictate. Don't crush another believer's spirit by your not sacrificing a petty liberty when Christ sacrificed his very life for him! Be concerned about even good things you do that are easily misconstrued as being improper.
For the Kingdom of God cannot be reduced to personal and cultural preferences like habits of eating and drinking, but it is defined by the transcendent realities of righteousness, peace and joy which are inseparably linked to the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Comments:
Servants of God possess a "missional" heart and they are those who cherish perspective..."zeroing in on what is critical" in any and every situation in which the Master has placed them. Helping to connect human beings with the Trinity and establishing as healthy (truly loving) of a relationship with them as possible, are the two most important matters before them. Paul had been enculturated as a Jewish leader of a most rigorous religious sub-group in the formative years of his life. But meeting the risen Christ on the Damascus road re-formed his heart and liberated him into a new perspective about the essence of true righteousness and the kind of robust spiritual bond between people and people groups that God has provided for the whole earth through Jesus.
When we are ushered into the real presence of the kingdom of God through the Holy Spirit's ministry, the cultural preferences by which we naturally tend to measure our (and others') degree of "right-ness", pale in significance to witnessing to (and participating in) the radical transformation of human beings (whatever their cultural background) by the power of the gospel of Jesus. The advent of the presence of Christ in their lives will enlighten them to turn away from and lead them out of the intrinsically evil aspects of their culture (various local versions of pride, greed, hatred, envy, deceit and lust) which we are also called to lovingly point out in a timely manner. However, this renewed perspective of what is genuinely critical in the eyes of God will provide for us a high degree of tolerance for and patience with people and their ways of living and relating that are different than ours.
Beyond this, when we touch and are touched by a different human culture than our own, we will inevitably learn many important new things ourselves that God himself has providentially placed in that culture that will draw us even closer to him. When we find the courage to cross over the cultural barriers for the sake of Christ (and truly there are cultural barriers right in our own "neighborhoods"), we will joyfully discover that he has gone into that culture ahead of us and that he has been waiting to meet and partner with us there on that "ground". Our eyes will be opened again and again to spiritual blind spots we've suffered from and new levels of our self-righteousness will be exposed, sprinkled afresh in and washed away by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. This perspective on life gives new guts and meaning to "following Christ"!
So how can we condemn or disregard our fellow believers? For we shall all have our individual turn before the judgment seat of Christ. The scripture says, "As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before me, and every person will verbally acknowledge what is true to God." Every one of us will give an account of ourselves to God. So let's not get sidetracked by critically evaluating each other, but zero in on evaluating what is critical- how we can avoid causing another believer to get tripped up by any insensitive attitudes or actions on our part.
I know by personal revelation from the Lord Jesus, that no material thing is intrinsically evil, but to the person who views it as unholy, it really is for him. If your fellow believer's heart is grieved by observing your liberty to eat anything, then you're not doing what love would dictate. Don't crush another believer's spirit by your not sacrificing a petty liberty when Christ sacrificed his very life for him! Be concerned about even good things you do that are easily misconstrued as being improper.
For the Kingdom of God cannot be reduced to personal and cultural preferences like habits of eating and drinking, but it is defined by the transcendent realities of righteousness, peace and joy which are inseparably linked to the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Comments:
Servants of God possess a "missional" heart and they are those who cherish perspective..."zeroing in on what is critical" in any and every situation in which the Master has placed them. Helping to connect human beings with the Trinity and establishing as healthy (truly loving) of a relationship with them as possible, are the two most important matters before them. Paul had been enculturated as a Jewish leader of a most rigorous religious sub-group in the formative years of his life. But meeting the risen Christ on the Damascus road re-formed his heart and liberated him into a new perspective about the essence of true righteousness and the kind of robust spiritual bond between people and people groups that God has provided for the whole earth through Jesus.
When we are ushered into the real presence of the kingdom of God through the Holy Spirit's ministry, the cultural preferences by which we naturally tend to measure our (and others') degree of "right-ness", pale in significance to witnessing to (and participating in) the radical transformation of human beings (whatever their cultural background) by the power of the gospel of Jesus. The advent of the presence of Christ in their lives will enlighten them to turn away from and lead them out of the intrinsically evil aspects of their culture (various local versions of pride, greed, hatred, envy, deceit and lust) which we are also called to lovingly point out in a timely manner. However, this renewed perspective of what is genuinely critical in the eyes of God will provide for us a high degree of tolerance for and patience with people and their ways of living and relating that are different than ours.
Beyond this, when we touch and are touched by a different human culture than our own, we will inevitably learn many important new things ourselves that God himself has providentially placed in that culture that will draw us even closer to him. When we find the courage to cross over the cultural barriers for the sake of Christ (and truly there are cultural barriers right in our own "neighborhoods"), we will joyfully discover that he has gone into that culture ahead of us and that he has been waiting to meet and partner with us there on that "ground". Our eyes will be opened again and again to spiritual blind spots we've suffered from and new levels of our self-righteousness will be exposed, sprinkled afresh in and washed away by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. This perspective on life gives new guts and meaning to "following Christ"!
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