Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from the “Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide”, is titled “Meekness in the Crucible”. Friday’s lesson title is, “Our Rock and Refuge”. In that lesson, the question is raised, “How immune are you to the reproaches and barbs of others?’. As long as self is alive and well, we will always be affected by those reproaches and barbs. What makes you immune to those barbs is for self to be crucified with Christ. But this is not self-mortification. Crucifixion of self means loving those for whom Christ died. Selfishness crowded out of our hearts by love. Love superseding self. How can this be done in our hearts and minds? The answer is in the title of Friday’s lesson… “Our Rock and Our Refuge”. Let’s look at this…
Each human has a propensity to defend self against attack. Physical attack, verbal attack, emotional attack, spiritual attack. We defend ourselves with fists, words, even by escaping into unreality. Our best human efforts are ineffectual against attack. There is only one remedy. That remedy is…. being united with our God. It is the one overarching lesson God wants us to learn and embrace. Only being united with Him can lead self to be totally irrelevant in our lives. And can lead others to be important in our lives. Here is why.
We strive to be loved, to be important and valued. To be wanted. And so, we strive for acceptance from others, from our peers, from our elders. It can be a constant striving to prove we are valued and worthwhile. Hence the pain of reproach we feel. It is a criticism of me… a non-acceptance of me. Yet God never wanted each of us to so feel. Never wanted this constant tension and stress about being accepted. He never wanted this to control us. Always wanted us to know we are loved, wanted and valued. Wanted us to be agents of active love, not stress-filled agents of reactive self-protection.
In our sinfulness, we look to others to validate us. But our peers, elders and other humans are not capable of this acceptance. Each human is a sinner like you and me. Each sinner is striving for their own acceptance and value, like you and me. Our only true value comes from our intimate relationship with our True “Dad”. Actually, everything only comes from that intimate relationship.
Last week I spoke of this. Anything apart from Him (everything on our own) is sinful and destructive. Especially any attempts at “obedience”. True obedience can only come as a consequence of our intimate relationship… because of that relationship… in conjunction with our “Dad” in that intimate relationship. And so, it is with being immune to the reproaches and barbs of others. By ourselves, the best we can do with those barbs is to stoically refuse to be affected by them. But in Christ, we not only are unaffected by them but we are motivated with love towards those very ones that are heaping on us the reproach. We have all the acceptance we need in the loving embrace of our Dad. So, we are free to love our enemies. Seeing in them the desperate need each has for the same Fatherly love that has saved us. Instead of defending self, we have been freed from that craven need. Freed to love others selflessly and profligately. Loving them as our Dad loves us… and them. Wanting for them the same love.
I hope you can fully grasp the simplicity (and the power) of this fundamental concept. Everything apart from God is sin and death. All things are accomplished with Him, not apart from Him. Hence, Satan’s diabolical activity to keep God at arm’s length from us. If He can keep us from God, then we are dying. We are death. So, Satan leads us to believe that we must fight the fight-of-faith alone. That God is a god to be feared, not a God to be united-to. That we must pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Satan works for this.
But if we refuse to believe those lies, and if we stay united with our “Dad”, we have all things. No stress, no anxiety, no striving. Just working in union with our “Dad” in all things. No promoting self, no protecting self. No stoically defending self. No escaping reality. Instead, loving others more than self. Pouring-out self for the good of others. Living a life of expanding purpose and meaning. This is the solution to the reproach of others, the solution to our sin problem. Union with our “Dad”.
With brotherly love,
Jim