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A Christian
Thought for the Month - Oct 2013
Thoughts for believers & seekers
Thought for the Month -
The Possibility of Utter Fulfilment
Galatians 5:22,23 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
I’ve heard it said, “You Christians are always going on about ‘making disciples’. That sounds a lot like making clones to me. Isn’t that what the freaky cults do?” Well there are four things that flow out of that bit of misunderstanding. Let’s quickly check them.
First, yes, Jesus did say to the early Church, “go and make disciples of (from) all nations” so, yes, that is something to be faced. Second, yes, you tend to be right for what you refer to as ‘freaky cults’ do tend to demand a conformity that is unhealthy and that is to be avoided. Third, the conformity that talk about discipleship appears to require, is in fact what I would call fifty per cent conformity (which I’ll explain later), and fourth, the purpose of that fifty per cent conformity is for good, as is the other fifty per cent. Now those two latter points need explaining don’t they.
The concept of a disciple is that there is a ‘master’ and a ‘follower’ or ‘disciple’ and the idea is that the master teaches the disciple to become like him, so when Christians talk about being disciples, they mean disciples of Jesus; it is all about becoming like Jesus. Now if you don’t know much about Jesus, we could perhaps summarise Jesus’ character as encapsulated by two words: love and goodness. Everything we see of him in the four Gospels of the New Testament of the Bible is an expression of those two things.
Now, if we are saying that every Christian is being trained by God to have and express this same love and goodness, who could possibly argue that that is a bad thing. This is what annoys me about a certain well-known crusading atheist: he always uses extremes or people who clearly got it wrong and clearly were not following in Jesus’ mould, emanating love and goodness. Check out the millions of very ordinary Christians around you and you often find that if you have a complaint about them it is that they are too nice or too good! Surely they can’t be that good, that nice? Well yes, because they are walking in Jesus’ footsteps and that is what he is helping them become. These are the two personality goals for Christians, to be full of love and goodness. In our verse above there is a wider ‘package’ of things that God is working to bring about in every Christian believer, to make them more like Jesus. Check that list out and tell me you didn’t wish to have them or more of them in your life
Hold on, you may say, I know some Christians who don’t seem to be very loving and don’t seem to be exuding goodness. That’s right, and the reason for that is that this change, this transformation, this work of discipleship, is a lifelong thing and therefore although the goal is to be full of love and goodness, we all change at different rates and some struggle and take longer than others to change. It is that simple; I wish it wasn’t but it is.
Sometimes it is helpful to measure people, not where they are are, but where they have come from and the changes that have taken place. This is what discipleship is all about - change - but it comes about by interaction with God; it’s not a self-help course thing. The more we get to know God and experience Him, the more we find these changes taking place - and they are good changes but they may come in small bits and take time to be really seen, and the truth is we’ll never completely achieve the goal this side of heaven. That shouldn’t stop us cooperating with God because, as we’ve said, these are all really good things to have in your life and they ARE available to have in large measure now!
Oh, one more thing. I used the expression earlier on about fifty per cent conformity. Now what I mean by that is that for every Christian believer that goal of love and goodness is exactly the same; God wants to bring those things more and more in our lives because living like that is more enjoyable! That’s fifty per cent of the goal. The other fifty per cent is about how that love and goodness is expressed in me as a unique individual. Love and goodness are the overall goals but they will be expressed in different people in different ways and the other fifty per cent is about how YOU become the individual that God wants you to be.
Yes, love and goodness are the things He wants for us both but we are still going to be two very different people. God has a unique plan for your life. For me it is to be a conveyor of God’s truth in the Bible; that the emphasis in my life. For you it will probably be something quite different that will be the emphasis in your life. When we put our lives into His hands, He helps us become the best person we can be - for me - and when I am working in the way He sees best, I find most fulfilment and have the greatest sense of achievement that I could possibly ever have. That’s what becoming a disciple of Jesus is all about - about how God can bring the best for me into my life so that I become the best I can be - despite my limitations, foibles and failures, all of which He understands and accepts, and is working on! Now who can say that isn’t a great goal for every one of us?
Galatians 5:22,23 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
I’ve heard it said, “You Christians are always going on about ‘making disciples’. That sounds a lot like making clones to me. Isn’t that what the freaky cults do?” Well there are four things that flow out of that bit of misunderstanding. Let’s quickly check them.
First, yes, Jesus did say to the early Church, “go and make disciples of (from) all nations” so, yes, that is something to be faced. Second, yes, you tend to be right for what you refer to as ‘freaky cults’ do tend to demand a conformity that is unhealthy and that is to be avoided. Third, the conformity that talk about discipleship appears to require, is in fact what I would call fifty per cent conformity (which I’ll explain later), and fourth, the purpose of that fifty per cent conformity is for good, as is the other fifty per cent. Now those two latter points need explaining don’t they.
The concept of a disciple is that there is a ‘master’ and a ‘follower’ or ‘disciple’ and the idea is that the master teaches the disciple to become like him, so when Christians talk about being disciples, they mean disciples of Jesus; it is all about becoming like Jesus. Now if you don’t know much about Jesus, we could perhaps summarise Jesus’ character as encapsulated by two words: love and goodness. Everything we see of him in the four Gospels of the New Testament of the Bible is an expression of those two things.
Now, if we are saying that every Christian is being trained by God to have and express this same love and goodness, who could possibly argue that that is a bad thing. This is what annoys me about a certain well-
Hold on, you may say, I know some Christians who don’t seem to be very loving and don’t seem to be exuding goodness. That’s right, and the reason for that is that this change, this transformation, this work of discipleship, is a lifelong thing and therefore although the goal is to be full of love and goodness, we all change at different rates and some struggle and take longer than others to change. It is that simple; I wish it wasn’t but it is.
Sometimes it is helpful to measure people, not where they are are, but where they have come from and the changes that have taken place. This is what discipleship is all about -
Oh, one more thing. I used the expression earlier on about fifty per cent conformity. Now what I mean by that is that for every Christian believer that goal of love and goodness is exactly the same; God wants to bring those things more and more in our lives because living like that is more enjoyable! That’s fifty per cent of the goal. The other fifty per cent is about how that love and goodness is expressed in me as a unique individual. Love and goodness are the overall goals but they will be expressed in different people in different ways and the other fifty per cent is about how YOU become the individual that God wants you to be.
Yes, love and goodness are the things He wants for us both but we are still going to be two very different people. God has a unique plan for your life. For me it is to be a conveyor of God’s truth in the Bible; that the emphasis in my life. For you it will probably be something quite different that will be the emphasis in your life. When we put our lives into His hands, He helps us become the best person we can be -