Wednesday, July 10, 2013

No special privlege, no power of our own - Cost of Discipleship Pt 106

Chapter 18 - The Disciple and Unbelievers

Bonhoeffer- 'The difference between the disciples' seeking and the Gentiles' quest for God is that the disciples know what they are looking for. We can only seek God when we know him already.  How can you look for something or find it if you do not know what you are looking for? The disciples seek a God whom they have found in the promise they have received from Jesus.'  AMEN!

'To sum it up: it is clear from the foregoing that the disciple has no special privilege or power of his own in all his intercourse with others. The mainspring of his life and work is the strength which comes from fellowship with Jesus Christ. Jesus offers his disciples a simple rule of thumb which will enable even the least sophisticated of them to tell whether his intercourse with others is on the right lines or not. All he need do is to say "I" instead of "Thou," and put himself in the other man's place. "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them: for this is the law and the prophet."  The moment he does that, the disciple forfeits all advantage over other men, and can no longer excuse  in himself what he condemns in others. He is as strict in condemning evil in himself as he was before to himself. The evil in the other person is exactly the same evil as in ourselves. There is only one judgment, one law, and one grace. Henceforth the disciple will look upon other men as forgiven sinners who owe their lives to the love of God. "This is the law and the prophets"-- for this is none other than the supreme commandment: to love God above all things and our neighbors as ourselves.'

Mat_7:12  Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

Luk 10:25  And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
Luk 10:26  He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?
Luk 10:27  And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
Luk 10:28  And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.

My Thoughts-

We have NO power of our own. Our only HOPE is in Christ and HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, not Christ and our righteousness, NEVER our righteousness. 

Any good we possess, any good we use, any good we do, any good at all comes from CHRIST.

Christ tells us to LOVE Him, and to LOVE others. When we are loving others we are loving HIM.

Bonhoeffer says it plain enough, true enough. We have to live in the here and now, ready to comprehend the truth of putting others FIRST, others before ourselves. We want others to treat us with dignity, with respect, with love, with niceness, with kindness, with loyalty, with common decency, without talking back, without any belittling, without any snide-ness, without subterfuge, without anger.  We hurt others ALL the time- sometimes intentionally but a lot of times not intentionally, but intentional or not, we have to seek forgiveness when we recognize that we've hurt someone. It's not easy, because we have spent a lifetime of justifying our righteous indignation, our right to anger.

Only through CHRIST can we hope to live as HE wants us to live in HIM. We must hate the sin, love the sinner, just as GOD hates sin and loves the sinner.

We must choose God because to do otherwise is death, hate, evil in all its forms. We might embrace the tiniest of evils, but it will still warrant death, just like the greatest of evils.  We must choose God because He is LIFE, He is LOVE, He is good.

By the GRACE of our GOD we are HIS, and as HIS we are gifted with the HOLY SPIRIT, and through the Holy Spirit we are to live in CHRIST, as CHRIST'S.

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