Self[ish]less State of Mind

I am not my own.

I have been bought with a price.

I am no longer living for me, but for the One who has called me His own, and set me apart to be included in His Holy Nation.

Do you agree with these statements?  The vast majority of Christians will say yes, but how many of them live like it?  How are we supposed to conduct ourselves in day to day life as believers in Jesus as our Messiah?  How should that impact our life?  Should what we do and how we act look different than people who do not profess to be believers?

According to the Bible, yes.

Do we, overall as a group, look different than the world around us in what we say, how we act, and what we do?

I think some of us do.  But others of us don’t realize the importance of this, and maybe we don’t even realize that we’re not making ourselves different.

So, let's shift gears a little bit here; what is it that we’re even supposed to be doing?  Well, the whole Bible is filled with lots of instructions on how to live in a covenant community (which is what we are; groups of believers, churches, etc., we are in covenant with God and with each other, since we are One), how to interact with the surrounding nations (i.e. nonbelievers around us), what to do about our finances, possessions, families, friends, neighbors, and the list goes on.  We are given many specific examples and instructions on how to live as a covenant people, as children of God.  But I’m not even talking about that today, because what it all comes down to is bearing good fruit, something by which the world is supposed to recognize us and who we represent (Matthew 7:15-20).  That’s right, it’s not our reputation that we’re risking here, but that of our King, because we bear His Name. 

What is good fruit?  What does that even mean?  Well, if we look to Galatians 9:19-26, we have it laid out pretty clearly for us, and not just what good fruit is, but the difference between good fruit and bad, and why we should be exhibiting good fruit.  I would encourage you to read those few verses.

I am going to concentrate on the good fruit instead of the bad.  Because optimism.  Right?  Let's take a quick walk through them.

So, first we have love.  That one is heavy, and in lieu of trying to explain it, I’m going to refer you to 1 Corinthians 13 (oh darn, she’s telling us to read more Bible verses!  What a cruel and unusual punishment for a believer such as myself!) where you will see what love is and what it isn’t, and how we’re basically useless without it.  And I also would like to point out that this is not referring to “self-love,” which is a huge trend in our culture lately, but is instead alluding to a selfless Christ-like kind of love that removes our focus from ourselves and looks out to those around us and how we can show God’s love and light to them.  Not that you shouldn’t love yourself, because clearly you should, otherwise we wouldn’t be told to “love our neighbor as ourselves” (Lev. 19:18; Mark 12:31).  The point is that loving ourselves should not be our focus.  That, my friends, is called selfishness.

Anyway, next we have joy.  I think that this one can be tricky, because we often seem to let our emotions get the best of us.  Or we try to find joy and happiness in places where it does not live; at least not the kind that lasts.  In order to exhibit this fruit, we need to find the true source of our joy, which is our God.  He is the source of our joy.  He gives us bountiful blessings, He takes care of us and provides for us, and He even sent His son to be our Messiah!  I know that our circumstances are not always great, and that is basically just how the world works, but your joy does not come from your circumstances (or it shouldn’t).  When people look at you, do they see just how great your joy is, since you find it in your Creator?  Or do they see a miserable emissary that they have no desire to imitate?

I think that peace really goes hand in hand with joy, because they’re both kind of about more than your direct circumstances, and more about what your priorities are and what you choose, because you choose whether or not to find your joy in your King.  And you choose whether to let his Peace surround you as well.  Will you let it?  Or will you let your circumstances get to you and show everyone around you just how unstable you can really be?  God is the only one who can provide that wholeness; that all-consuming, all-fulfilling peace that makes you feel full instead of empty.  And when we live our lives showing that we have that peace, not only does it have a positive effect on those around us, it also shows the glory of our King, because His peace surpasses human understanding (Phil. 4:7).

Patience, kindness, goodness, and gentleness are all different attributes, but I think that we can put them all together because they all have to do with how you actually treat other, whereas we have been talking about fruits that are pretty much just your general attitude and vibe.  Although patience can also be about waiting on God instead of just doing what you want to do when you want to do it (because we wouldn’t want to assert our dominance over God, would we?), I think it also has a lot to do with how you deal with other people.  Being patient and trying to understand them, instead of making rash assumptions that are only going to complicate things and make people upset.  Being patient and helping others to meet their potentials, instead of just looking down on them and thinking about how much better you are (or someone else is!).  Being patient and getting to know someone, not judging a book by its cover.  And being kind and understanding, thinking of the needs of others, and showing them that you care all go right along those lines, as does goodness and gentleness, as opposed to mean-heartedness and hostility, or dealing with others in a rough way.  When we treat others with kindness, respect, and dignity, we show them that we care, and that our caring is a result of the loving and caring God that we serve.

One of the hardest of the fruits of the spirit is faithfulness.  It’s not always hard to be faithful.  When we are by ourselves, it can be pretty easy.  When we are alone with God, we can devote our time to Him, we can speak openly with Him, and we can make pledges of devotion and faithfulness, or even when we are with another believer who can hold us accountable, but what about when we’re in the public eye?  What about when it looks stupid to be so devoted to something we can’t see and have no “proof” of?  When it seems like a waste of time, a pointless pursuit, and it singles us out as strange?  Isn’t it easier to just act like everyone else?  Or even to just let it go, because it’s not really that important that other people know your “personal interests.”  Right?  We are so busy worrying about our own reputations (even though honestly, what’s wrong with being known as someone who wholeheartedly serves the Creator of the universe?) that we forget that we bear the name of God and are ruining His divine reputation as we attempt to normalize our own and blend in to secular society.  Let’s face it; we were kind of made to stick out.  And isn’t it better to stick out a little than to present God as someone who is not worthy of the kind of faithfulness needed to show what He’s all about?  Isn’t it more important to give Him the glory that He deserves?  Shouldn’t we be faithful to Him before we are even faithful to ourselves?  I guess it just depends on what kind of fruit you want to bear. 

Ah, self-control, old friend.  The never ending struggle against what our fallen natures want and what is good and right and pure.  And in today’s culture, self-control is almost a moot point. We are encouraged to “be ourselves” and “live our truths” (whatever that means).  But what is more important; falling prey to things that will lead us down dark and twisted paths, or having control enough to show the world the things that really matter, and who really owns this world?  There are so many things that I could say here, but I think this one is the one that most of us know we need to work on.  And not just for us.  Because if people around us see us doing whatever we want, having everything we would like to and acting in ways that are abhorrent in the eyes of God, what does that make Him look like to them?

This is so important.  What it really comes down to is us shifting our focus off of ourselves and on to who we serve.

So, knowing all of this (which most Christians will say that they do), why do we continually see our brothers and sisters acting almost the complete opposite of this?  We are constantly seeing people take such offense at others for doing something that they don’t like.  Or that they personally don’t think is right.  Why are we so concerned with what others are doing and what others think of what we’re doing?  Who put us in charge?  Who gave us the right to be the ruling judge over everything?  This sense of entitlement is not Biblical.  We are called out of the world and set apart, and we are supposed to be better than that.

My challenge to you is this: shift your focus.  Try to focus less on yourself, and more on who you serve.  Remember that it’s not your reputation at stake, but ultimately His.  That’s the choice you made when you entered into covenant with Him.  Trade the selfish for the self-less, and produce good fruit.  After all, that’s how everyone will know who you are.

So, who are you?

Water to Wine

So often we label ourselves.  We decide that we are a certain way, and we shape our behavior to this because this is what someone does who is a/an [insert label here].  Introvert.  Extrovert.  Girly-girl.  Tomboy.  Real man.  American.  White.  Black.  Native American.  Asian.  African.  European.  Christian.  Is this a bad thing?  Not necessarily.  Except that usually, what we are doing is taking a societal norm, something that the world around us has decided is valid, and then applying it to ourselves.  We are letting the world sculpt us.

Why?

Because we want to fit in.

Is this a bad thing?  Yes.  No.  Maybe.  I don’t know.  That’s not what I’m here to talk about today.

So, there is a group of people that the world has decided to put all into one box, and we are called Christians.  And we are all the exact same.  We have the same beliefs, we all act the same way, have the same standards, and if you know one of us, you know us all.  Are you with me so far?  I hope not.  Especially if you fall into the diverse mishmash of Christianity, Believers in Messiah, Followers of Jesus, whatever you choose to call yourself.

The world does have one thing right; we are One.  One Body of Messiah, one Family, etc., but we are all very different, and we all come from different places.  We all have different purposes, so why would anyone even expect us to all be alike?  Well unfortunately, we a lot of times think that of ourselves.  We hold up one person as the pinnacle of perfection, the one that we strive to be like.  But should we do that?  I think not.

While it may not be a great idea to put yourself in a box that the world has made for you and try to be everything that they expect you to be, it’s not exactly better if you’ve crafted the box yourself instead of letting your Creator show you who He made you to be, and I think a lot of times we do this.  Many of us base it on who we’ve been, and we take that verse that tells us we are a new creation and say that we now can be nothing like the person we were before or we are doing something dreadfully evil.  But is that true?

Let’s look at the verse I’m talking about.  2 Corinthians 5:17 says this; “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.” [HCSB]

Pretty straight forward, right?  The old has passed away, and we are to be new.  Well, let’s look first at the next few verses, and then back at verses 14-15 and try to get a little context of what we’re talking about here.

  ¹⁸ Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us. ²⁰ Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” ²¹ He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

¹⁴ For Christ’s love compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: If One died for all, then all died. ¹⁵ And He died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the One who died for them and was raised.

Okay.  So yes, we are a new creation.  But does that mean that we are completely new and not to be at all like who we were before?  To me it looks like we have a new focus.

Now, yes, having a new focus, a new priority, is going to drastically change us.  Instead of the world revolving around us, now it revolves around Jesus.  Instead of living for ourselves, we are living for Him, and we are His ambassadors, His witnesses, His emissaries.  Basically, we are the reason that anyone who doesn’t know God might want to.  We are an army.  We go from being our own to being His.  From lost to found.  From profane to holy.  From water to wine.

But to many people, this means something else.  They go from being whatever they were before to being “Christian.”  From secular musician to Christian.  Can’t be singing about things that are “of the world” anymore, so I’ll stop and just be a Christian instead.  From hair stylist to Christian.  Shouldn’t be so focused on external beauty; a good Christian wouldn’t do that.  From literally anything to being a “Christian.”  Because apparently we missed the part about reconciliation. 

Jesus made it so our sins will not be counted against us.  This does not mean that we undergo a personality change at the moment we give ourselves over to God.  We do not lose our natural gifts that God Himself created us with.  You may have been lost and wandering in the wilderness before God called you to Himself, but you were still made in His image long before you ever knew what wandering even was!  God has created each and every one of us with special gifts and abilities so that we can each be a different functioning part of the Body of Christ.

The word “profane” means something that is common and unremarkable, while the word “holy” means set apart.  We go from being common, part of the world that ultimately is unremarkable, to being someone who is set apart, needed, and highly valued.  Don’t run from who you are, because that’s who God made you.  Run from the profanity of it.  Run from the things that distract you from God, the things He says that He hates.  And it is possible (and probable) that your incredible, unique, God-given qualities that make you who you are will try to lead you to those exact things that God hates and bring you back into the world, but just remember that this is only a side effect of a fallen world, and something that with His strength, you can overcome.  But you must overcome it.  Because Jesus already has, and He is the one you are representing. 

Use your gifts for His glory.  Use them as He wants you to.  You don’t need to be like everyone else.  You just need to be who He has called you to be.

In the very first miracle that Jesus did that is recorded in the Bible, He went to a wedding and, when they were running out of wine, he turned some jugs of regular, boring water into wine.  And not just any wine.  This wine was good.  You had people coming out to the groom and saying “bro, why didn’t you bring this out earlier?!  You basically had us drinking liquefied crap, and you had this just chilling in your house?”  (Okay, they didn’t say it just like that, I’m paraphrasing in a very huge way, but you can check it out for yourself in John 2:1-11)

You were the water, and you are the wine.  You were once some regular water in a jug.  But now, you’re a new creation.  Jesus has paved the way for you to be wine, and not just any wine.  You are the best wine.  You are the wine that makes the wedding festive and wonderful.  God has a purpose for you; don’t get in your own way by looking at others and thinking that you need to be just like them to be a good Christian, or good at what you do. 

Just be exactly who God made you and called you to be.  That is how you can be His emissary.  Show the world the absolute majesty of your King by being who He created and doing the great things that He can only do through You.

We are His, and that is who He made us to be.