I have been really wrestling with what it would look like to be a "spiritual" person. For decades (maybe centuries) we have defined a good Christian by certain practices - read your Bible, pray, go to church, be a moral person. While there is nothing wrong with these practices, I have noticed that these have become the end goal in modern Christianity.
We are to develop friendships with "non-Christians" and then share Jesus with them. Then we are supposed to bring them to church where the preacher (or the programs the church has developed) will train them to do the things I listed above. BOOM! We have a new Christian.
When I look through Jesus' life, this doesn't seem to be the same thing He tried to accomplish with the people He met and developed friendships with. He would love them and then teach them about how they could love God by being who God made them to be. After experiencing God's love, they would then naturally be inspired to love those around them.
I don't want to make this too simplistic, but it seems like Jesus goal in discipleship was not to create Bible-reading, praying, church-going, moral people. His goal was to help those people around Him find out how deeply they were loved by God the Father and then let them become the person God created them to be.
I realize this might seem risky - what if they mess it up? What if they get a screwed up notion about who they are in Christ? What if they blow it? But Jesus didn't seem to mind. He took Peter under His wing and Peter still left hanging in Gethsemene. Jesus poured Himself into Judas but Judas still betrayed Him. John was "the one whom Jesus loved" but he still asked if he could be the #2 guy or call down fire on a city that didn't treat Jesus well.
Casting a vision that helps people see what their true identity is in Christ is risky. They might abuse it. They might not follow all the rules we think they should. What do we do then?
I guess we just keep loving them and listening to them and do like Jesus did...let them be who God calls them to be and try to be wise about when to step in and when to let them go. Maybe all of this is really a challenge for us to decide if we are more focused on the outward appearance or the inward relationship. Maybe discipleship is as much about our own understanding of our relationship with God as it is other people's.
1 comment:
Those are good insights on Peter, Judas, and John I had never thought about before. Thank you Jason for being a faithful blogger. I need the stimulation.
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