Smile, ‘cos this is gonna hurt.
What are we pursuing? God?
God is holy and therefore, if we want to be close to Him, there is a need for us to be holy too.
“But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’” 1 Pet 1:15-16
So, are we saying here that if we work at it hard enough we can become holy like God? No chance, not in a million years; it’s impossible! But with Christ [not just living but] ruling in our lives we can.
Take a minute, let this idea of Christ ruling in your life settle in.
Not just Christ living in us but having full authority; what he says goes [immediately].
Have you ever led a group of people that have not done what you have said? Boy, is it frustrating! (I won’t go into it further but it drives me nuts!!!!) But that is often what we do; we say to Jesus ‘you’re in charge’ and then we do our own thing. Imagine how much that must frustrate him; he wants to do so many amazing things in and though our lives but we frustrate him at every turn.
Now, let’s get back to Jesus’ sermon:
"You have heard that the law of Moses says, `Do not commit adultery.' But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust in his eye has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So if your eye - even if it is your good eye - causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your hand - even if it is your stronger hand - causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” Matt 5:27-30
Recently, Ruth and I have been watching The Convent on BBC2 where a group of four ‘regular’ women are invited to spend 40 days living in a convent by their rules. On one occasion the nuns were discussing the Ten Commandments with the group of women and everything was going well until they touched on the issue of adultery.
Now adultery is pretty clear cut regardless of your religious persuasion, but one of the women who was a ‘free-spirited’ atheist wasn’t so happy with the definition being proposed. She was in a marriage where her husband was fully aware that she was also in love with another man. (While her husband seemed to ‘consent’ to it he was far from emotionally happy with it.) As a result she did not want to view her behaviour as adultery [which would cause her to consider the repercussions of her actions]. She spent the entire session trying to argue her case unsuccessfully.
Ruth and I watched her in stunned amazement, but in reality she is no different from us when we hear Jesus’ words. We become instantly defensive because it seems as though he can see our deepest secret.
When Jesus left the beauty of heaven it was not to have a pleasant stroll in the pleasing climate of Israel and occasionally dropping the odd pearls of wisdom for us to pick up. He came to confront the enemy [our enemy], eye to eye. When Jesus confronts sin it was never going to be pretty [for sin]; it was going to be a blood bath – but it was Jesus’ blood that was shed not ours!
I fail myself [and my Lord] with a thousand looks every day.
It hurts my heart perhaps as much as it does God’s, but the more I fail to confront it the more it hardens my heart. A hardened heart always leads to a heart attack, and the same is possible spiritually.
Here is Jesus’ revolution: love life, abundant life – run from everything that destroys life.
God is holy and therefore, if we want to be close to Him, there is a need for us to be holy too.
“But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’” 1 Pet 1:15-16
So, are we saying here that if we work at it hard enough we can become holy like God? No chance, not in a million years; it’s impossible! But with Christ [not just living but] ruling in our lives we can.
Take a minute, let this idea of Christ ruling in your life settle in.
Not just Christ living in us but having full authority; what he says goes [immediately].
Have you ever led a group of people that have not done what you have said? Boy, is it frustrating! (I won’t go into it further but it drives me nuts!!!!) But that is often what we do; we say to Jesus ‘you’re in charge’ and then we do our own thing. Imagine how much that must frustrate him; he wants to do so many amazing things in and though our lives but we frustrate him at every turn.
Now, let’s get back to Jesus’ sermon:
"You have heard that the law of Moses says, `Do not commit adultery.' But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust in his eye has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So if your eye - even if it is your good eye - causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your hand - even if it is your stronger hand - causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” Matt 5:27-30
Recently, Ruth and I have been watching The Convent on BBC2 where a group of four ‘regular’ women are invited to spend 40 days living in a convent by their rules. On one occasion the nuns were discussing the Ten Commandments with the group of women and everything was going well until they touched on the issue of adultery.Now adultery is pretty clear cut regardless of your religious persuasion, but one of the women who was a ‘free-spirited’ atheist wasn’t so happy with the definition being proposed. She was in a marriage where her husband was fully aware that she was also in love with another man. (While her husband seemed to ‘consent’ to it he was far from emotionally happy with it.) As a result she did not want to view her behaviour as adultery [which would cause her to consider the repercussions of her actions]. She spent the entire session trying to argue her case unsuccessfully.
Ruth and I watched her in stunned amazement, but in reality she is no different from us when we hear Jesus’ words. We become instantly defensive because it seems as though he can see our deepest secret.
When Jesus left the beauty of heaven it was not to have a pleasant stroll in the pleasing climate of Israel and occasionally dropping the odd pearls of wisdom for us to pick up. He came to confront the enemy [our enemy], eye to eye. When Jesus confronts sin it was never going to be pretty [for sin]; it was going to be a blood bath – but it was Jesus’ blood that was shed not ours!
I fail myself [and my Lord] with a thousand looks every day.
It hurts my heart perhaps as much as it does God’s, but the more I fail to confront it the more it hardens my heart. A hardened heart always leads to a heart attack, and the same is possible spiritually.
Here is Jesus’ revolution: love life, abundant life – run from everything that destroys life.
posted by Andrew at 9:39 pm
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