In the New Testament I would say it's even more focused upon. There is memorable verse after memorable verse, parable after parable, calling us to action and telling us to give this thing our all.
Running the race with endurance, as in Hebrews. Having enough oil for our lamps, using the money we were given and not just burying it in the ground, staying awake because He will return as a thief in the night. One of my personal favorites is the teachings in Peter talking about how we can be sure of our salvation. He lists a bunch of virtues and basically says that if you're pursuing God you should be seeing these virtues growing within you. He is using that as a way to encourage people that they truly are saved.
There is just so much content about this, so much focus. Perhaps one of the most convicting or scary is when Jesus talks about the Master going away to another country and trusting His servant to take care of things, and if the servant says to himself "my master will be gone for a while" and starts to get drunk and starts to do a bunch of stupid stuff, he will be doomed.
It's undeniable that there is something to this relationship with Jesus that is supposed to be taking us over completely. Our daily lives, every aspect of it. I don't even entirely know why I'm writing this, it's just been something that's been on my mind as I'm reading the bible recently.
The passages that spoke to me the most I think, were the letters to the churches at the beginning of Revelation. Despite the situation of every church, Jesus encourages and commissions them all at the end of the letter by telling them to endure to the end - the wording in the ESV talks a lot about the ones who "conquer" will receive the crown of glory.
I was inspired in reading this, because it just kind of speaks to what's important. Regardless of the churches who were "lukewarm" or doing very well despite persecution, Jesus always just told them to keep going. To conquer.
I think this is extremely fundamental to Christianity. I feel as though, in my own mind, sometimes this whole thing gets translated into not screwing up. As long as we're not sinning, we're good. Just buckle up, and survive until you die and you're golden. Curl up into the fetal position and just kind of enjoy what you can, as long as you don't swear or watch Game of Thrones you're good.
I think that idea is extremely contrary to what the bible is asking of us. In Mark 13:34 it Jesus says this:
"It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and
puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper
to stay awake." (ESV)
So here's where the anxiety sets in, right? "Each with his work". This is where my mind starts to scramble to convince myself that I've identified what my work for God is - that I've been doing it - and thus that I'm saved.
Don't let this anxiety distract you. If you're like me and you just go into panic mode whenever you read verses like this - take some time to pray and breathe. Even if you haven't been doing "your work" the best thing you can do is try to correct that right? Doesn't God see our hearts and see that we want to be pleasing Him and following His direction - even if the only times we want to is when we realize that we haven't been doing that? Trust that He's big enough to see all of that, and trust in His forgiveness that was proclaimed when Jesus died for us. Trust also that you aren't the first person to fret about this, and that this is a God who made everything (seriously take some time to think about that). In my mind a God who made this life wouldn't be freaking out if we were off track or haven't really committed ourselves to Him yet. He wants relationship with us, and we can trust that His intentions are good, that even if we are off course, He just wants us to bring us on course. He's not freaking out with a divine lightning bolt pointed at your head - that's just what the Devil wants you to think.
Because what happens when we go into panic mode, is we go into religious mode. We try to think of some things we could do to make God happy, to calm Him down from how mad He is that we're messing up. Maybe pray for a whole extra 20 minutes, give an extra 20$ at church this week, start trying to deny everything we understand because all we want is just to know that we're saved. The Devil likes us to be in this place because it's chaos, it's confusion. God isn't freaking out. So if you're freaking out, consider the idea that God isn't the reason you're freaking out.
Something I've mentioned in my blogs before is the idea of identifying "our work" is often just a process of anxiety driven thoughts to begin with. We want a job description so that we can be sure we're doing everything we're supposed to and shut our conscience up.
So how do we handle verses that tells us we're actually supposed to be doing things? To be conquering? My mind immediately goes to Jesus' words when He says that today's worries are enough for today. Just take some steps today and stop trying to alter your entire life in half an hour because you feel worried. Just seek.
I have found something helpful to me was to really understand and believe that God can be a part of my every day life. We often separate things. Maybe we dedicate some time in prayer in the mornings, then we go to work. Read the bible when we get home, then eat dinner and spend time with the family.
But there's no reason why God can't be a part of everything in our lives. Even if our work doesn't exactly promote a "gospel sharing environment" (maybe you work alone or don't even really interact with people that much in your job) - doesn't the bible tell us to work with integrity to bring glory to His name too? When you start to think of your every day work life as a challenge and an opportunity to worship God by working hard - or loving your coworkers or the customers you interact with, there's less division in our lives.
I've had to be careful with this idea, however. Don't turn being nice to people at work into a quarter that you deposit into your salvation vending machine. Doing these things is about being changed so that you do them because you want to. It's a genuine expression of how you feel. You love people in your job because you want to. There's a huge difference between loving people in your job because you want to and doing it to try and please God. It breaks itself down into a classic religion vs. faith situation.
Religion would say that you have the ability to love people in your job, and if you do that God will be happy thus earning you some God-points. Faith would say that God doesn't need you to do anything because He's God and made you in the first place - and if you tried to do things on your own (self-righteously) you couldn't anyways. Consider this from John 15:4
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2
Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch
that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are
clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in
you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine,
neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches.
Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart
from me you can do nothing." (ESV)
The basis for all of this is a relationship with Jesus. I don't mean to make this into some kind of life-success formula, because I couldn't if I tried. But just consider what Jesus is saying here. He is saying you can't do stuff on your own. But then He tells you can do it with Him, with you in Him and He in you. He's asking you, just like all those other passages I was mentioning at the beginning, to bear fruit. Not receive Him and then just chill out. To conquer. To persevere until the end. And to stay awake. The bible is yelling it at us.
If we truly believed that we were saved from eternal death and gained eternal paradise I don't think complacency would be an option. We have a dire need to gain perspective on this life, and I think that's why the bible is yelling this stuff at us. If eternity is real, what is a week? A year? What is a few hours of sleep lost? What is money?
Jesus warns us of the night a lot, and I was reading a commentary on that passage in Mark today (you can check it out if you want here, I recommend it: http://www.amnightwatch.com/chniwtch.htm) that essentially says it is now "night" because Jesus is gone temporarily. Now is the time to take what we were entrusted and use it.
We live in a culture that, if someone in Wendy's screws up our burger, we get offended and annoyed, feel entitled to an entire new burger, and then go and complain about it to our family and friends because of how bad the service was. We deserve better as the customer because the customer is always right, how dare that 15 year old Wendy's employee getting paid $10.75 an hour for 12 hours a week screw up my sacred 3 dollar burger? Doesn't he understand this is my dinner we're talking about? If my dinner is bad then my mood and thus my entire life could be ruined because the ketchup didn't make it on this burger. It's funny because it's not wrong.
I guess this is just my example of where our perspectives often go. In a perspective of redemption to eternal paradise we're thankful to even have a burger. To be provided for our needs today, to be given the opportunity to live for another day as an opportunity to worship God, to live another day in relationship with Him. I can't read the New Testament without feeling that conviction - without starting to look at things from a perspective of the fact that the God who created the whole universe gave you a way to experience true life. I think the bible is yelling at us to remember that, and let that perspective change our entire lives.
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