Raising the bar on urgency

i think this week’s sermon was a little easier to swallow than last week’s.  but it shouldn’t have been.

this whole issue of urgency should be of top-of-the-list importance in our lives.  when i think about how james writes about our lives, i’m humbled:

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”  Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”  As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.  Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.  James 4:13-17

my life?  a mist?  your life?  a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes?  this is weighty stuff.  we think of ourselves as invincible.  we think we have all the time in the world.  we think that nothing will ever happen to us and we’ve got control of our destiny and can plan for our futures as if there is some assurance it will happen.

and then james says we are nothing but a mist…here one day, gone the next?  this is humbling.  but it is the reality we need to live with.  we need to learn to ask a simple question.  every day.  all the time.  in every circumstance.  ”what does god want?”

that’s it?  ”what does god want?”  yup.  that’s how we are to live our lives.  asking the question “what does god want?”, and then spending our days doing our best to answer and then obey is the measure of a life well lived.

so how are you doing?

• are you faithfully asking that question, or are you living your life doing what you think is best for your life?
• are you seeking answers in his word?
• are you inviting wise counsel (the biblical kind) into your life?
• are you learning from your mistakes?
• does it matter to you…more than anything else…to be pleasing to god?
• are you really living, or merely existing?
• do you see the eternal destiny of those around you with a sense of urgency?
• why not?
• what are you going to do about it…today?

 

1 John 4:11-21

love.  what amazing topic.  what a profound lifestyle.  what a way to miss the point!

the most important thought that i still have lingering from yesterday’s sermon is how easy it is to miss the point.  language is so significant.  how we define the words in the bible can completely change the meaning of the text.  we need careful study and interpretation.  and the cool thing is that it can be done!

two words, if improperly defined, can undercut this entire passage…but if properly defined can revolutionize our lives.  the first is the word ought.

john writes in verse eleven, “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”   the way i was raised, when my parents said that i ought to do something, it meant it was optional…a choice…a good idea that i was free to use or reject as i saw fit.  you ought to clean your room or cut your hair or do your homework or help mom with the dishes or stop calling your little brother names.  it might have been implied that it was something that i had to do, but as long as they included the word ought, it was still optional.

not so in the greek world.  in the mind of john, the word opheilomen (in greek) means “to owe money or a debt that is due”.  the love that we are to show to each other is not optional.  it is a debt that is owed.  the right translation totally changes the command from optional to imperative…essential…urgent…a must.

the other word is agape.  selfless, sacrificial, unconditional action given in the best interest of another person…not earned, or deserved, or merited in any way…with no expectation of anything in return.  it is a choice…a deliberate action of the will…not a feeling…not an emotion…the example of jesus on the cross.

that’s the kind of love we “owe” to each other.