Our lives IN Christ should be lived for others. Whether we are strong or weak in our faith, we are servants of the most high God. In fact we are to be so subservient to others that we are willing to be slaves without any rights to our own lives. Paul said we should forgo doing something if we know it might detract from or derail someone’s faith in God. Since we are one body IN CHRIST, we should look out for each other, encouraging others in our collective faith in God. As Paul wrote to the church, Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:11) If people are weak in their faith, we should attempt to strengthen them in every way possible. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Romans 14:19 As brothers and sisters IN CHRIST our primary purpose on this earth is to manifest God to the world. We do that best when we are unified in our faith IN CHRIST. If we falter in this area, we manifest the divine in an imperfect way. Unity, peace, mercy, and grace should be attributes in the body of Christ. If any one of those attributes are missing, we miss the perfect will of God. He sent Jesus to make us new creatures, edifying the world through his body known as the church of the living God. When we as the body of Christ dissemble because of any weakness in our testimony of Christ, we bring confusion to the world, for we are but sounding brass, making a lot of noise, saying a lot of words, pontificating about a way of living, not dissimilar from any other religion or philosophical thought. How difficult it is for unity in the body of Christ. Often churches have split over some minor theological difference, or some minute point, such as how we should run our services, or what music should be played or not played, and the like. When we split or fray the body over such positions, we hurt the testimony of Christ. We shatter the truth of love for our neighbor, for carrying for the weak, the hurting, the troubled. We arrogantly hold on to our positions of strength, while destroying those whose faith might be hurt because of a lack of unity and love. Many people in the world who were once part of a church are now isolated from any community of believers. They either believe the church is not for them or that all Christians are hypocrites, talking about love and salvation, but acting just like the world: self-centered, opinionated, my way or the highway in their interactions with people. When we talk and live like the world, we do become cisterns without water, without the love of God in us, without the possibility of the Spirit flowing out from a reservoir of love within us. If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-4) Without love, we do become nothing, especially to the weak who are around us and to the secular world that assesses whether we really know God or not.
Sometimes Christians in their interactions within and outside of the Church take on the nature of the world, a self-serving nature: eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. They think only in the present tense, get as much out of the world as you can. This is not the life God called us to. He asked us to think about our neighbors, even the future generations that we will never see. If we are strong in the faith, we should pass this strength on to our children and friends, so that they will pass on this enlightenment to their children and their grandchildren. Loving strongly the people who are presently with you will affect many generations. The reverse is true also. A negative person will influence ongoing generations. The fleshly attitude of the world is to live for self without regard for others. When God warns his people not to serve other gods, He says, You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:5-6) The kings of old who were wicked lived for themselves. They conquered land for themselves, exploiting the natural resources of those lands for themselves. Everything revolved around their wants. If we do not watch out, our lives can be constructed in the same way, just for ourselves. King Hezekiah of Judah was dealing with such a king, Sennacherib of Assyria. The Assyrian king bragged about exploiting the land of Lebanon, cutting down the tallest cedars and choicest juniper trees. He was going to invade Judah, exploiting it the same way for his own purposes. As we were reading this passage from 2 King 19, we thought how this illustrates how some Christians live in this world. By living the way of fleshly self-interest, Christian people might gain much in this world, but lose in their interactions with people, especially those who are not as talented as they are or weaker in their faith. Rather than help the weak, the fleshly Christian will demand his own way. This is not a valid perspective of the way a Christian should live. We all should know that we will eventually meet our God face-to-face. He will ask us what we have done with our short existence in this world. He will evaluate our lives correctly. We will not be able to say anything in our defense, for he will know if we looked out for the weak, the deprived, the injured. He will know whether our decisions were exploitive: “me first” others last. We will not be able to defend our selfish, self-willed lives, for we know the Lord is compassionate and merciful to the weak. He came to minister to them: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18) We know that He loved the world so much that He gave his life even when we were his enemies. We will have no defense for our selfishness or our self-willed lives, for not helping the weak in faith, or those who are hurting in any way.
Are we focused on others or are we focused on ourselves? Many Christians today struggle with depression and anxiety. Sometimes this battle revolves around our willingness to live our Christian lives in an alien way, contrary to God’s way. We are hoping a fleshly lifestyle will bring peace to our lives. We are living with the absence of a song in our hearts, for we are desperately filling our lives with the things of the world. We hope that something new, something different in our lives will excite us, give us satisfaction, even the peace we desire. But this land of the senses will never give a Christian peace, satisfaction, or comfort. God has another land for us to live in and that is the land of faith. In the land of faith, the will of the Father is the generator of our lives. Our prayers, our desires, our activities are hooked into his will. The Lord’s Prayer indicates what our lives should be like. Let the Father’s will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. This of course is not the land of the flesh, but the land of faith. How many of us lose this land in our daily lives? How many of us when we wake up in the morning ask, what is your will this day for me? What song do you want me to sing today? What words do you want me to say today? What body language do you want me to display this day? Are we that focused in our lives? We ought to be because the Holy Spirit has come to take residence in us. He has come to teach us to image God. His voice, his words, his language, his anointing, should be ours for the strong, for the weak. If we are so focused, the people of the world will notice. They will notice when we walk in their midst with a different tenor in our voice, a different expression on our tongues, a different touch, a different spirit. If we are strong in the faith, we must know the weak in spirit, the weak in faith, the weak in body will find strength in our demeanor, our attitude, our language. As Paul told believers, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. (Ephesians 6:10) We Christians are all children of God, adopted into the family of God by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Are we examples of this brotherhood and sisterhood in Christ by our walk, not just our tongue, but by our walk? Are we new creatures, or just the old creature, remodeled? Hopefully, we are all new creatures, weak or strong. Blessed is the name of the Lord that is the umbrella over our lives. Let us be creatures of a new life, expressing to all (the weak in spirit, the weak in the flesh, the rejected, the neglected) that there is a kingdom of God that has come down to earth, and each of us abides in it through Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit. The world will see this kingdom by the way we live. Walk as a kingdom dweller by faith today. Praise the name of the Lord forever. Amen! Merry Christmas!
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