Please take the time out to read part one and part two of this blog post series by Jeff McQ about the Jesus paradox.
Someone once said something profound – it might have been Stephen Covey I can never be too sure. It was really simple – rather than looking to be understood, it’s of primary purpose to understand others. I am fairly confident that the best way of serving one another is based on that principle – if I serve with the need to be understood the quality of my service is self-seeking. If I serve with the desire to meet the needs of someone else, that requires me to an extent to enter their world, have an understanding of them so as to be able to meet their needs. That gives of myself to the other for their benefit primarily.
What does that have to do with how you view Jesus? One of the points raised in Jeff’s Jesus Paradox is about making God in our own image. It’s like worshipping God from a self-serving perspective. If my view of God is shaped around Him meeting my needs, it will come as no surprise at all that I’ll dwell on the characteristics of God that reflects those needs. Also unsurprisingly if I should share this Jesus with a friend it’s going to be with that twist on it.
Don’t get me wrong, if you check the woman at the well’s testimony to those in the village about Jesus in John 4 this is on about how this dude told her about herself. Could be viewed from a self-serving perspective. The crucial matter being, she was inviting people to check this guy out in case He could be The One. So the self-serving avenue has its benefits and perks.
The challenge comes in when our relationship with Jesus demands we take a wider view of Him, not just as one to meet our needs, but also as one who commands obedience, who looks for love and expects the reflection of His character in their daily lives – a character I cannot reflect alone but one that is seen in and through a community of believers together.
What it suggests is that rather than coming together to have our needs understood, our relationship with God is based on growing in understanding Him first and as a bonus realising that He understands us anyway. From the understanding we have of who He is expressed through all of us as a family we no longer limit our perspective of Jesus on a prescribed doctrinal statement as if that paper covers it and that’s it. Rather from each other our different perspectives of Him enriches us and hopefully seeps over into allowing others to understand Him for themselves as He is revealed to them through us. Not just limiting Him to a ‘it depends on how you look at him’ limiting relative approach – but an invitation to something wider and bigger.
Still I hope you understand what I’m saying – it just depends on how you view it.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
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