Serve or Be Served: I Don’t Have The Right – I Have The Responsibility

On sojoruning through dark times in my life, one of the things I came across rather heavily was the truth that I do not have the right.

A brief, half-hearted read of the apparent Sermon of the Mount sees Jesus not dishing out a bunch of rights for me to demand from others and from God but an incredible new way of living that requires me to live under Kingdom responsibilities. Submissive, sacrificial, serving the needs of others expressing and demonstrating what it is to be truly a child of God.

There is no mandate in that to impose anything on anyone. There is no call to outline a list of rules and regulations that others must live by or must abide by to engage with me appropriately.  The Kingdom lifestyle in many ways seems to be somewhat different to a rights culture that promotes the pursuit of self-determination, self-expression and self-ambition for the glory of the self.

In those circumstances, it’s sad that I have the temerity and arrogant notion that society should abide by the commands of God.  There is a prophetic responsibility to point to the life God calls us to live.  There’s nothing to demand that it’s legislated.  That means that if the society and culture I live in chooses to promote values that go against God I can do a lot of things in response, but I am not given a heavenly mandate to call for change because all people HAVE TO live under God’s rule.  They don’t have to.  Sin has explicitly placed us in a culture and framework that whatever nominal nods to righteousness is going against God’s rule.

That’s why there’s a cross, that’s why there’s a Kingdom, that’s why there is a returning King.  That returning King won’t come through the General election or a Preseidential election.  He won’t have a platform asking for people to vote Him in or ordering people to obey.  His Kingdom when fully established will see His rule permeate all that is His – it won’t be forced, it will be a joyful expression of that which they delight to live by.

What that means is that I believe God calls for marriage to be between a man and a woman.  If society, culture, the state, wishes to change that to suit the needs of prevailing values I won’t be shocked by such a thing, neither will I stop it.  Because the state and culture have their positions on all of life and a lot of them contravene God’s plan.  I don’t cry over it and look for legislation to change it.  I see men and women of God living in community and showing the difference and inviting people to join that whilst publicly and unashamedly stating that this is what God invites all people to enjoy not out of rule-keeping but out of a grace-driven, compassion-led, heart-felt, mind-full response to the relationship proposed with the King Himself.

So I don’t have rights to demand, I have responsibilities to live out with that same servant attitude that marked Jesus out as being one who came to serve and not be served.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd