Do Unto Others: Part 4–Who Do You Think You Are?

Who do you think you are?

I’m not asking that in the sense that you usually hear it. Usually this is a rhetorical question we toss out at somebody who is getting WAY out of line.

But seriously, who DO you think you are? What kind of adjectives would you use to describe yourself?

Unfortunately, the words many people would think of are not flattering. “Depressed.” “Worthless.” “Insignificant.” “Damaged goods.” “Failure.” “Unlovable.”

This matters, because how we see ourselves is a major factor in determining how we interact with others. People who have a low self-image are not likely to engage in a healthy way, if at all, with the world around them.

Self-image is a complex thing.

It is the sum total of every attitude we have ever had about ourselves, but also everything we have ever HEARD about ourselves. Some people are just jerks that like to pick on us and beat down our self-image. Sometimes, however, we suffer long-term consequences for something we actually did do.

If any of this sounds familiar to you, may I offer you some encouragement, courtesy of St. Paul?

And his fullness fills you, even though you were once like corpses, dead in your sins and offenses. It wasn’t that long ago that you lived in the religion, customs, and values of this world, obeying the dark ruler of the earthly realm who fills the atmosphere with his authority, and works diligently in the hearts of those who are disobedient to the truth of God. The corruption that was in us from birth was expressed through the deeds and desires of our self – life. We lived by whatever natural cravings and thoughts our minds dictated, living as rebellious children subject to God’s wrath like everyone else.

But God still loved us with such great love. He is so rich in compassion and mercy. Even when we were dead and doomed in our many sins, he united us into the very life of Christ and saved us by his wonderful grace! He raised us up with Christ the exalted One, and we ascended with him into the glorious perfection and authority of the heavenly realm, for we are now co-seated as one with Christ!

Throughout the coming ages we will be the visible display of the infinite, limitless riches of his grace and kindness, which was showered upon us in Jesus Christ. For it was only through this wonderful grace that we believed in him. Nothing we did could ever earn this salvation, for it was the gracious gift from God that brought us to Christ! So no one will ever be able to boast, for salvation is never a reward for good works or human striving.

We have become his poetry, a re-created people that will fulfill the destiny he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it! Ephesians 2:1-10 (TPT)

Good enough?

Our worth does not come from what we have done (or failed to do) or from anyone’s opinion of us. We have value simply because we were created in the image of the One who is the most worthy of all. We didn’t have to clean ourselves up or check of a list of criteria or accomplishments to be “good enough” to live this life. Rather, we have this life to live because we are already counted as good enough by the only One who matters!

We were made in the image of the all-sufficient God; therefore, what we have in our hands will always be sufficient for the tasks ahead of us. Because when we were created, so was all of the work that God had planned out for our entire lives. We are all wired to be proficient at and passionate about certain things. And although we do have the free will to choose whether or not we want to walk on this path that has been so scrupulously marked out for us, it always seems to go better for us when we do.

Pass/Fail

Will we get off the path from time to time? Of course we will. We’re humans. We do that. Remember, though, that the value of your life is not determined by how many times you screw up. There are no “D-” children of God. Life is pass/fail, and the pass is irrevocable, because the One giving the grade rigged the coursework in our favor. All you have to do is show up for class.

Success!

I think the reason so many of us (myself included) see ourselves as failures is because our definition of “success” is all whackety. We live in a world that is constantly judging our performance, so naturally, we do that to ourselves as well. It seems we’re always trying to measure up to something.

Can we please help each other get over this?

I’m going to repeat myself here, because I need to hear it again too. We don’t EVER need to worry about being good enough, because we were designed to be good enough to do the work that we were designed to do.

What really matters

At the end of our lives, there are no bonus points for climbing the corporate ladder. No other human will be giving testimony at the Judgment Seat of God that will determine whether or not we make the cut. God is only going to ask us about two things: What we did with Jesus, and what we did with the gifts He gave us.

I need to pause here to note that the questions come in that order for a reason. Because if you haven’t done anything with Jesus, the rest of this doesn’t matter. You can’t do the work God predestined you to do if you are not even aware of (or are in denial of) the Truth that God actually did do that. The thing is, we can’t do any of this on our own. God doesn’t just provide the calling for our lives, but also the strength to live it out. If we aren’t in a state of total trust and reliance upon that strength, then we are doomed to failure.

But wait a minute…

Aren’t there lots of successful people in this world who don’t believe in God? Again I ask, how are you defining success? If you’re talking about worldly things like money and status, then sure, I guess. But as the King of the Piedmont Blues, Cootie Stark, once sang, “I never saw no U-Haul behind no hearse.”

Satisfaction

Sure, we can make money and get the corner office, the big house, and all that. But are we ever satisfied with our own efforts? Solomon was one of the richest kings who ever lived, but this is his observation:

If you love money, you will never be satisfied; if you long to be rich, you will never get all you want. It is useless. Ecclesiastes 5:10 (GNT)

It is true that our identity is inextricably bound to our work. It’s supposed to be that way, but we tend to look at this truth from the wrong angle. Our work doesn’t determine who we are. Who we are—who we REALLY are—determines our work.

Awkward questions

So maybe when we meet people for the first time, instead of asking the typical guy question, “So what do you do?” maybe we should be asking, “Who do you think you are?” Well, maybe not, but you get the idea, right?

So, Truthseeker, who DO you think you are? Or better still, who do you KNOW you are? Because that will determine what you do.

(For more on what that looks like, come back for Part 5–Faithful.)

Overcoming the World: Part 2–Calling for Backup

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13 NLT)

Everyone has up days and down days. Christians are no exception. When we are in a desert faith-wise, as I have been for a while, it is so important to have people around us that can build us back up. Also, we should remember the example that these people set for us, so that when we’re back on the mountaintop, we can lift somebody else up who needs it.

Unfortunately, the tendency in these dry seasons of the soul (especially for a cave-dwelling introvert like me) is to pull away from people. We get used to our misery, and it seems that we would rather prolong it than to have someone tell us what we need to hear.

The problem with that is that when we pull away from people, we pull even further away from God than we were already feeling. That’s when the old bad habits start rearing their ugly heads again. One of my biggest fears since accepting Christ is that someone is going to encounter me during one of these bad times and associate what they see in me with Christianity in general. What if I’m standing at the throne at the End of Days giving an account of my life, and I find out that someone missed out on the Kingdom because of something I said or did that turned him or her away?

But fears like this can actually accelerate the downward spiral. We might figure, “If I avoid people entirely, then I won’t run the risk of blowing my witness and staining the name of Jesus.” So we pull even further away, not just from society, but even from the hand that feeds us.

Girl sitting alone on bed, apparently isolated in her apartment — COVID has made a bad situation much worse with people isolating that don’t even want to.

Another manifestation of getting into a spiritual funk like this is that we stop reading the Bible. Everything we need to adjust our attitudes is right there, and the Holy Spirit is only too willing to illuminate the verses that we need to hear, but again, we are too comfortable in our misery to put forth the effort of opening a book. I am so grateful to have a wife that will put scriptures in front of me when I am not going to them myself.

Do you have someone in your life that cares enough about you to give you a lift like this whether you want it or not? If you don’t, then find one. The best place that I have found for this type of community is in a small group (sometimes called “life groups” or “cell groups”) in a church. If you are not familiar with this concept, it’s a group usually of 8-15 people that meet regularly to go deeper together in their faith than they would get by only going to church on Sunday morning.

What we need to remember is that we were set apart from the world to be WITH God and His people, not to be hermits in a cabin in the mountains (not that there’s anything wrong with mountains!).

As I mentioned in Part 1, a normal life involves difficulties. For a Christian, those difficulties include enduring people who mock the Name of Jesus. Sometimes it seems that life would be easier if we didn’t have to put up with that, but we have to remember that this life is not all there is. The next one is a lot longer.

God’s joy and peace are there for the having. You just have to want it. But sometimes, you need somebody to remind you that you want it. So don’t ever be afraid to call for backup.

(For the next step, please join us for Part 3–Living
by the Spirit)

Fishers of Men: Part 1–Follow Me

Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. (Mark 1:16-18 ESV)

This is one of a plethora of examples in the Bible where context is everything. Just reading that passage by itself might make you say, “WHAT? How gullible are these guys? Was Jesus some kind of Pied Piper or something?”

Because it sounds like He was just going for a walk, saw these two guys, called them, and they came. Obviously, there’s more to it than that, but you have to know where to look. So here’s some background.

Simon and Andrew are brothers from Bethsaida, which literally means House of Fish. They are working in a commercial fishing business in Capernaum, on the north end of the Sea of Galilee, where Andrew lives with Simon and his wife.

Andrew is also a disciple, or follower, of a radical new preacher known as John the Baptist, who was sent to prepare the way for the Messiah, the Anointed One of God who would redeem Israel.

One day Jesus shows up where John is baptizing. John immediately recognizes Him, and points Him out as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Naturally, word gets out about this event.

So the next day, Andrew is there along with another disciple by the name of John, who recorded the events of that day in the Gospel that bears his name:

The next day John was standing again with two of his disciples.When he saw Jesus walking along he said, “Look! The Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard what he said, and they followed Jesus.

When Jesus turned and saw them following, he asked, “What are you looking for?”

They said, “Rabbi (which is translated Teacher), where are you staying?”

He replied, “Come and see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. (John 1:35-39a CEB)

After spending the day with Jesus, Andrew immediately goes and gets Simon, convinced that he and John had found the Messiah. So how were they convinced in a single day? I’m sure it had a lot to do with what Jesus said to them, which the Bible didn’t record, but there is another reason.

Andrew and John recognized Jesus as the Messiah because they were EXPECTING the Messiah.

Indeed all Jews in that day were, but most of them didn’t know what they were looking for. Many were hoping for a military leader to throw off the Roman occupation of Judea. These folks missed it completely when Jesus was in their midst. Indeed, many of them were among those who eventually had Jesus executed.

But John the Baptist knew that the Kingdom of God was another matter entirely. And he had done his job in preparing the way for those who had ears to hear his message, Andrew and John among them.

(Come back for the conclusion–Track Record!)

DN=: Part 4–Holy

Another troublesome churchy word is “holy.” Like “righteous,” the word “holy” also has some unnecessary baggage attached to it. Just as some people see the word “righteous” and think “self-righteous,” some people see the word “holy” and think “holier-than-thou.”

If you’re not familiar with the term, “holier-than-thou” describes the attitude of a Christian condescending to someone else. Naturally, this attitude is very off-putting.

HOLY DN= HOLIER-THAN-THOU

The word “holy” simply means “set apart for God’s purpose.” It can refer to a day, a place, a nation or an individual. Mostly, however, it refers to God Himself. As Isaiah wrote:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

(Isaiah 55: 8-9 NIV)

God is holy, or set apart, simply because He’s God, and we’re not. When people put their faith in Jesus Christ, trust in His saving work on the cross to make them righteous, and make Him the Lord of their lives, then they also become holy. They are still human beings, but now they are set apart from the world to do God’s work.

It is critical to understand the progression here. God makes us righteous through JESUS’ work, not ours. In the same way, God makes us holy only when we realize that we AREN’T made righteous by our good deeds.

If a person claims to have faith in Jesus, but still lives as he did before being saved, then how has that person been set apart?

He hasn’t.

Christians are SUPPOSED to stand out. We are SUPPOSED to be different from everybody else. Otherwise, what would be the point of being one?

The irony of holiness is that just as we were set free in order to become servants, we were also set apart to become unified—not to the world, but to each other. As Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus about Jesus:

The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love. (Ephesians 4: 11-16 NRSV)

When Paul refers to “saints” in this context, he is referring to all believers, not people (such as himself) who are referred to with a St. in front of their name. The “work of ministry” for which said saints are being equipped is the service to which we are called upon having been made free. Still with me so far?

In addition to the gifts Paul mentions above, there are many other spiritual gifts that believers receive when they are made holy. I’m not going to go into all of them here. However, in light of the sudden aggressive turn our culture has taken, I feel it necessary to expound upon one of them—discernment.

(And I will do that in Part 5–Discrimination)

DN=: Part 3–Righteousness

One of the pitfalls of using churchy jargon is the proclivity for misunderstanding by those outside the church. (For more on this topic, check out this post.) One of those commonly misunderstood words is “righteousness.”

To be “righteous” is to have “right standing” with God. This is not a status that can be achieved through human effort. As Solomon pointed out, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. (Ecclesiastes 7:20 ESV).”

This concept is explained further in Romans 3:

What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands;
    there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
    they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
    not even one.”

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

(Romans 3:9-12, 19-26 NIV)

The passage above contains the word “justify” a couple of times. Justificiation is the act of being made righteous by one who has the authority to do so.

In other words, since we can do nothing to make ourselves righteous, God makes us righteous through faith in Jesus.

Redemption

When we were slaves to sin, we were lawbreakers and were therefore under the penalty of the law. That penalty is death. Jesus paid that penalty for us in order to pay our debt to God. This is the “redemption” the passage above refers to.

The danger for Christians, having been made righteous by faith, is to forget that we had nothing to do with being forgiven. Sure, we made the choice to follow Christ. However, we are forgiven because HE says so, not because WE say so.

If we become too accustomed to our view from the mountaintop, and forget how we got there (by God throwing us down a rope, not by our climbing), it is all too tempting for us to look down on the people still “down in the valley.”

Basically, if you ever find yourself looking down on someone else from a position that you have not earned, you have crossed the line to self-righteousness.

RIGHTEOUSNESS DN= SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS

For Christians, self-righteousness comes from the mistaken idea that we are somehow better than other human beings are because of our relationship with Jesus. For a non-Christian, self-righteousness occurs when they must put another down in order to elevate themselves.

Since true righteousness comes from faith in Jesus alone, a person without that faith would have no means of being made righteous. Since no one can earn the favor of God by good deeds, anyone who boasts in those deeds would be self-righteous as well.

Simply put, self-righteousness is unrighteousness.

(For more clarification of church jargon, come back for Part 4–Holy)

DN=: Part 2–Freedom

“All things are allowed,” you say. But not all things are good. “All things are allowed.” But some things don’t help anyone. (1 Cor 10:23 ERV)

We are big on freedom in this country, aren’t we? We have a Bill of Rights in our constitution guaranteeing us freedom of speech, the press, assembly, religion and petition. When our soldiers go off to war, we are told that they are “fighting for our freedom.”

It’s in all the songs we learn as kids. America is the land of the FREE and the home of the brave. We are proud to be Americans where at least we know we’re FREE. From every mountainside, let FREEDOM ring.

Christians are also fond of the words “free” and “freedom.” We also have phrases that we repeat or sing in songs, such as:

Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
If the Son has set you free, you are free indeed.
My chains are gone; I’ve been set free.

Nevertheless, Christians can easily fall into the same trap as the rest of the world in the sense of abusing personal freedom at the expense of the freedom of another.

FREEDOM DN= LICENSE TO DO WHATEVER WE WANT

Within a generation of Jesus’ death, both Paul and Peter were dealing with this problem in the early Church:

It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then? Galatians 5:13-15 (MSG)

Make the Master proud of you by being good citizens. Respect the authorities, whatever their level; they are God’s emissaries for keeping order. It is God’s will that by doing good, you might cure the ignorance of the fools who think you’re a danger to society. Exercise your freedom by serving God, not by breaking the rules. Treat everyone you meet with dignity. Love your spiritual family. Revere God. Respect the government. (1 Peter 2: 13-17 MSG)

Do you see the tie there? Freedom = service. Some translations actually use the word “slave.”

Now for Americans, that notion can be jarring. For Americans of African descent in particular, it can feel like a harsh slap in the face. After all that this country and its people have gone through to win freedom, God wants us to be slaves again?

The original Greek word in Peter’s letter is doulos, which does mean slave, but not in the way we Americans think of it. When we hear the word “slave,” we think of forced labor. In other words, a slave’s status is determined by the work the slave does and the conditions under which he is compelled to do it.

A doulos, on the other hand, is also a bondservant, or one permanently bound and subservient to a master; however, their slave status is determined not by their work, but by their relationship to their master.

The implication then, made by both Peter and Paul, is that to be a bondservant of Christ, one must no longer be a slave to sin. After all, as Jesus Himself said, “No one can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24a NIV).”

Furthermore, in this context a doulos is a VOLUNTARY bondservant. We are born slaves to sin, but we CHOOSE to be “slaves” for Christ. The only way to be in a position to make that choice is to have first been freed from the grip of sin in our lives. A slave cannot free himself; he can only be freed by the master. And the Master said this:

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34 NIV)

And also this:

Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. (Matthew 25:40b NIV)

Therefore, serving God and serving other people are actually one and the same. So being a doulos to Christ means being a doulos to the world as well, but to its people, not its philosophies.

As no one can serve two masters, and as it is impossible to serve both Christ and our own sinful desires, so it is also impossible to simultaneously serve the world while doing whatever we want.

This is the reason that no one is justified by their works alone apart from having been freed by the Master, with whom they have a relationship.

Which brings up another DN=.

(Which will be covered in Part 3–Righteousness)

Deliverance

No, not THAT kind of Deliverance!

(Yeah, that’s more like it.)

Have you ever found yourself in a situation that seemed hopeless? Did you pray to God for deliverance? I have found myself in that place on numerous occasions.

God always answers prayers for deliverance, but sometimes it’s not the answer we were expecting. We have a tendency to treat God like an ATM—swipe our prayer card, and out come the blessings.

But sometimes the answer is “no.” And sometimes it’s “not yet.” And sometimes, it’s “Yes, but not the way you’re thinking.”

God wants us to live life to the full; however, He is always more interested in our holiness than our happiness. We would love for our deliverance from trials and tribulations to be as quick and painless as possible.

But more often than not, God’s plan is to deliver us through the trial, rather than from it. And painless isn’t always part of the plan. In fact, sometimes the pain is the plan.

The trials we undergo may seem like the end of the world while they’re happening, and yet, we always come out the other side, maybe not totally unscathed, but still standing nonetheless. We may have some scar tissue, but we also frequently have a sense of liberation. We got THROUGH this! And it didn’t kill us!

Here’s the thing about deliverance though. The process of being delivered through a trial is supposed to be a lesson about reliance on God’s strength when our own is failing.

After all, why did we cry out to Him in the first place? Because we knew that we were at the end of ourselves and it was only His strength that could deliver us.

So naturally, what do we do first when the next trial comes along? That’s right, we try to fix our own problems and rely on our own strength. Again. Although we know we should never take God’s deliverance for granted, we do it anyway, because it is in our nature to forget things like that.

Fortunately God, who knows us better than we know ourselves, anticipates this, and is always there to pick up the pieces AGAIN (and again, and again). What a great thing it is to know that we can always fall back on His patience and mercy!

Still, I think we ought to make more of an intentional effort to remember why God delivers us in the first place—because He is with us, and He is for us. If He was in our corner the last time we had a problem, and we know that He doesn’t change, then it makes sense that He will go to bat for us again the next time we have a problem.

So instead of having a high-speed come-apart the next time life beats us down or backs us up against the wall, we should approach our trial with confidence, knowing that we will be delivered, and that we won’t have to rely on our own strength to get it done.