This week, I have learned even more about how important it is to realize that what we have with God is a relationship and not a formula. A video went viral this week saying that we need to focus on Jesus and not religion. This obviously depends on how you define religion. Jesus says in James 1:27 that "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." So religion is actually meant to be extremely relational. Religion is not getting in our Christian bubbles on Sunday morning and worshiping God. This is important because it helps us in our relationships with other Christians and with God Himself, but true religion involves building relationships with those hurting and rejected by the world, by our culture, even by the church. It breaks my heart when I see Christians trying to avoid associating with people because of their actions or beliefs. We are supposed to live like Christ, and when I look at Christ's life, I see him hanging out and associating with the types of people that I feel like most Christians avoid. We don't need to shine a light in a room that is already lit, we don't need to love those who already understand Christ's love, we are supposed to go to those who have the greatest need for love, to the places that are the darkest! Does this make sense? Is it comfortable? No it doesn't and it isn't! Is it logical? Well no it isn't. But is it really necessary to try to logically explain Christ? Do we need to limit God to the mathematical analytic laws which He created? Can we logically explain how a man falls in love with a woman? As Proverbs 30:18-19 says, "18 “There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a young woman." In the same way, we can not explain how Christ loves us. When we try to explain it with human logic and reason, we get a picture that is far inferior to the truth of the situation. This reminded me of this image. (yes I did just use an xkcd comic to illustrate how amazing our relationship with God is lol)
I know I was basically rambling on here incoherently, but I hope you understand my point. Our interaction with God does not involve us following a bunch of rules anymore then it involves a step by step method of "accepting Christ". It can not be explained by human logic because it was created by the one who created human logic. Our logic is flawed, but God's is so pure and perfect that it is able to explain everything about the universe. We limit God by trying to break down and understand His relationship with us and then formulate rules for how we relate with Him. Our normal approach to explaining life is useless when it comes to explaining salvation. All we need to do is do our best to try and grasp the concept of a pure, perfect, holy being leaving heaven and eternity and limiting Himself to Earth and time in order to take our brutal, just, deserved punishment. There is no formula for how to live life other than to try to grasp that infinite love and then show that love to everyone, those close to you and those you've never met. Jesus even says these are the only two commandments we need to know.
Matthew 22:37-40, "Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
We are to show that impossible sacrificial love to those who our culture calls the lowest of the lows. This is true religion, and it is impossible to understand or explain.
No comments:
Post a Comment