Lately (which I realize is an ambiguous term meaning the past months
or the past day) I've been thinking about how I as a Christian and
Christians in the world are to relate to others, both believers and
non-believers alike. I think one of the biggest flaws that Christians
have socially is that we think it's enough to just "be nice" to people
and leave it at that. It's fine if I'm just a nice person. It's okay to
just smile and wave at that homeless person. It's okay to just have fun
with lost coworkers and then when the shift ends go our separate ways.
It's okay for me to live life based on "'Hi, how are you?' 'Good, how
are you?' 'Good.'"
But is it?
In
thinking about all this, I keep coming back to Jesus calling for
radical discipleship. Now, I'm not gonna get into Platt's Radical
(mainly 'cause I didn't finish it because I found it to be redundant)
but the point he made was that Christians are called to live radical
lives. Jesus told us that the two greatest commandments, the ones we are
to hold higher than any other value system in our lives, is to love God
supremely and to love our neighbors as we would love ourselves. And
boy, do we love ourselves. Yet somehow that doesn't translate to loving
our neighbors. We (I) make excuses for not seeking out relationships and
opportunities to love others. We cop out with things like "Oh, I'll
just be a good person and let Christ shine through me." Now I'm not
saying that Christ does not shine through us or that we shouldn't live
like that, but if we live in our own little worlds and never actually
enter into someone else's, how are we loving our neighbors? How can you
(I) say that you love Jesus if you acknowledge him with your claims but
do not live in submission to his words? Houses built on sand.
I
think the reason we make excuses is a flaw in every human being,
Christian or not: selfishness. Selfishness often manifests itself in
either laziness or apathy. Laziness says, "It's important that I build
this relationship with this person, but right now my doing this or not
doing this is more important." Apathy says, "Maybe it is important that I
love people like Jesus did, but I just don't really like or care about
this person or that person. Someone else can love them." In the movie
Se7en, Morgan Freeman's character says about apathy, "I didn't say I was
different or better. I'm not. Hell, I sympathize; I sympathize
completely. Apathy is a solution. I mean, it's easier to lose yourself
in drugs than it is to cope with life. It's easier to steal what you
want than it is to earn it. It's easier to beat a child than it is to
raise it. Hell, love costs: it takes effort and work." Love costs. Following Jesus costs. Salvation is a free gift, but to whom much is given, much will be required.
Nice
is not enough. Nice is the church of Laodicea in Revelations 3. Nice is
a cop out. Nice is a lie. So what do we do? We love our neighbors as
ourselves. I'm still learning what this means, so I hardly can do
anything more than tear down. I'm not much for rebuilding anyway. But I
think scripture carries the weight of truth farther than I ever could:
"By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth." 1 John 3:16-18
Go and do likewise. Dan Jones, go and do likewise. Person reading this, go and do likewise. Life is not about us.
