There is a saying that suggests sometimes it’s good to be bad.
It’s not just a saying whipped out by the villain in a cartoon. There is an element in people that allows for a little bad from time to time. Perhaps the little white lie, maybe not putting in as much effort at work. Lashing out at the umpteenth person who happens to be invade your personal space. Deliberately indulging too much in food and drink. Spending money on something frivolous when your family you needed the funds.
Other examples can be wheeled out of seeing the wrong and doing it anyway. And as we do it, there’s a sense of justification in doing it.
Worse still, Jesus explores further that what the law addresses is not just our acts, but our motives, the state of our heart. It’s all well and good saying we didn’t touch a woman, Jesus says if we lust after a woman in our heart we’re guilty. It would be scary to see how many would be guilty of adultery on that standard.
Not only is the issue about what we are to avoid, there is what we are supposed to do. Showing mercy and kindness to those who abuse and misuse us. Never seeking vengeance, but blessing. Doing all this because we follow our father who sends rain and sunshine on the just and the unjust.
Here is the clincher in this growing pain. We do it, because we’re called to be holy as He is holy.
It’s a growing pain because the first issue that rears its head is how we cannot be like God. All those little nasties mentioned earlier are things to which we’re all susceptible. So much so it’s acceptable. It’s condoned by the sentiment ‘nobody’s perfect’ and ‘we’re only human’.
It’s not however condoned by God.
He would not call us to be something unless we were capable of being it. The more we grow, the more we appreciate an ever present grace to help us in our time of need. The more petty squabbles and power plays are exposed for the disgusting habits they are and replaced with godly traits that seeks the welfare of the other and not self.
Sure we slip and His love is there to bring us back on track. That track, however, is one of holiness.
It sometimes feels like layer after layer of us is peeled away. Layers of excuses, layers of pride, layers of fear with each episode it’s highlighted and painfully stripped away. We had excused it for so long it became a part of life like a second skin. Yet to truly be human as God created as seen in the example of Jesus, we commit ourselves to the process so we can be holy as He is holy.
On a collective level, this calls for us to shun the very appearance of evil as we live together. That’s not going on a witch hunt and parading haughty piety comparing people to our lofty values. It is a gracious but committed approach to helping each other live holy lives together. Holy as reflected in right relationships with each other. There in itself is a growing pain. People with stinking behaviours and creepy attitudes are placed in our lives for us TO LOVE. And God has a gracious way of reminding us that in case we think others have stinking behaviours and creepy attitudes there is somewhere else that has attitudes and behaviours that need to be cleaned up.
We know it’s a growing pain individually, we see it as a growing pain collectively. It’s an important discomfort to deal with if we truly are to mature to become the children of God we were always meant to be.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 