Category: Christian Living

Perhaps one of the best-known verses in Scripture is “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

What may not be so well-known is that Jesus announced this about himself while dealing with problematic attitudes of his disciples, and in part as a reason or grounds for the kingdom-oriented attitude of self-denial and service to others.

Jesus’ identification of himself as a ransom is certainly soteriological: giving his life to set free those men held captive by their sin and Satan is the essence of salvation. Yet the context is ethical: how do we live in light of this soteriological truth?

Jesus had announced his imminent suffering (Mark 10:32-34), and James and John responded by requesting to be “made much of” when Jesus came to power (10:35-45). Jesus taught them that his followers would join him in suffering, but that being “made much of” was God’s to give as he saw fit: it was for those “for whom it has been prepared” (10:40).

He then reminded them of the upside-down, back-to-front nature of kingdom living: the first will be last and the last first (10:42-45). As a primary indicator that this kingdom mentality was right and proper, he reminded them that his own back-to-front attitude led to his giving his own life to purchase the freedom of those who could not free themselves (10:45).

We still need this reminder. We still want to be made much of by our spouses, made much of by our children, made much of by our friends, and made much of by our churches.

We think and act as if everyone around us has been created to serve us; to make us feel good about ourselves, to affirm our existence and worth, to recognize how important we are. And when we expect others to make much of us, there is little will and energy left to actually do anything for anyone else, or even think of others before ourselves.

The reality is that God has already made much of us in the crucifixion, when Jesus “gave his life as a ransom for” you, and for me, and for everyone who repents and believes. It is now time for us to make much of others.

I had to review the math to be certain. A 100% return on a $10 investment earns you $10. One hundred times $10 is $1,000, which works out to a 10,000% return. So, when Jesus says that those who lose everything to follow him will receive “a hundredfold” (Mark 10:28-31) he is promising a 10,000% return on our kingdom investment.

Not really.

Yet some don’t benefit from the consolation provided here because we are too busy working out a mathematical formula: so your brother shunned you because you proclaim the gospel; Jesus promises to give us 100 times what we lose; therefore I should receive 100 brothers. Which means that you will likely be adopted into the Duggar family and five or six more like it.

What Jesus is telling his followers is that we will receive a real consolation for the loss of material things and relationships in this life.

Will that consolation be a direct replacement of the thing lost (plus 100 more)?

When believers leave brothers, sisters, fathers and mothers and children for Christ, we receive much more. The number of our spiritual family members has multiplied exponentially. We are adopted into God’s family of believers everywhere. And if this is to be a real consolation, believers must ACT like family to other believers.

When believers lose houses for Christ, we receive the hospitality and welcome and even potentially places to sleep from our new family in Christ. If this, too, should be a real consolation, believers must be willing to share their homes with others.

When believers lose lands for Christ, we receive a kingdom with branch offices in every nation on earth. To be a real consolation, we must welcome fellow believers from other nations to our own.

And what of “persecutions”? Jesus tests our “name the term that doesn’t fit” abilities and throws “persecutions” in with brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, children, land and houses. Why is receiving persecutions a consolation for those who have lost everything? Isn’t persecution just one aspect of losing everything?

The student is not greater than his teacher. Persecutions prove that we are part of Christ’s body. Persecutions demonstrate to us that the losing was not in vain. Persecutions prove that what we gain through Christ is infinitely better than what we lose because of Christ.

We are passionate for application.

Bible studies encourage it. Sermon classes teach it. And society clamors for practical, useful information in the forms of 3-easy-steps to this, and 5-rules for that, and 7-surefire-ways to the other.

But as hard as you might try, you will not find practical instruction or 3-easy-steps to anything in the gospel account of the transfiguration of Jesus (Mark 9).

Perhaps this is best.

Perhaps Peter was succumbing to the worship of the practical rather than worship of the Lord when he suggested that he build tents for Elijah, Moses and Jesus. Any camper knows that erecting a tent is not easy. But there are steps. There are instructions. There is an identifiable end-product to the work of your hands.

Confronted with the reality that this vision of Jesus’ grandeur left him knowing nothing to say and nothing to do, Peter resorted to a default position: I’ll do something. Make a list. Gather materials. Assign tasks. Measure results.

But being in the presence of the glorious Lord does not lend itself to merely practical activity. Isaiah wound up answering the call of God when he said “Here I am. Send me!” but this was only after Isaiah had taken in the glory of the Lord. And he did not initiate his own ideas of appropriate response to the glory of God, but responded to God’s direction.

Practical activity will follow appropriate worship. James says, after all, that faith without works is dead.

But sometimes it is not yet time to do. Sometimes is it appropriate to be, with God.

In Mark 8:22-26, Jesus heals a blind man. Mark uses several different words for sight or seeing, and the implied progression is from simple biological ability, to an ability to perceive dimly, to the ability to focus and fix his gaze.

When Jesus restores our spiritual sight, he also give the ability for us to keep our gaze focused on him.

Many things can distract us from looking only to Christ, among them the idea that we have become good enough to stop repenting, we’ve become straight enough to quit reforming, or that we’ve become mature enough to cease learning.

Would you fix your eyes on Christ? Be constantly repenting, constantly reforming, constantly learning.

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change (James 1:16-17 ESV)

James first cites this origin of good things to counter false notions that temptations are from God. He acknowledges that trials, testings, tribulations could be of godly origin, but to prove that God is not the author of evil desires in our hearts, makes this positive claim about the character of both good things and the character of God.

In doing so, he asserts two “true facts”:

1. if something is good, then it came from God

2. only good things come from God.

The first, alone, doesn’t eliminate the idea that our “bad” things come from God, but the second does.

Not many of us, upon looking around and surveying our condition, would find nothing negative, uncomfortable, or sinful. There are, of course, bad economies, crimes, bad jobs, hungry children, vexatious wives or husbands…because God is sovereign, all these circumstances are under his complete control. Yet in having control of them, God does not sin. Nor does he tempt us to sin.

The wicked consequence of pedestrian circumstances arises because of the response our wicked hearts make to them. God is not responsible for the produce of our heart.

Yet even when we are in such tribulation, do we have food to eat? It is from God. Do we enjoy the laughter of our children? It is from God. Do we take pleasure in sunshine, find joy in family, rejoice in good music? All from God. And, if we are willing to stretch our notions of “bad” and “good” circumstances, we can discern that even those that we consider unpleasant are “good” in the sense that they turn our hearts to the goodness of God, affirming the validity of our faith and confirming the rightness of God.

Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.  Proverbs 30:7-9

The Proverbs are filled with truisms about wealth, poverty, work and sloth. One might conclude that money is an obsession to the writers. If so, it is only because wealth is an obsession for people.

Here the Proverbs express a valid attitude toward money. It is not the only legitimate attitude, but truly captures the dangers of extremes with regard to financial resources and wealth. These extremes play upon man’s natural temptations that accompany both abundance and need.

With abundance the temptation is to forget God. Self-reliance, self-congratulation, self-worth are the inherent partners of financial success. If left unchecked, they will cause the one who attains is to suppose that it is his own strength, labor, intelligence that gained it for him. Pride, greed and envy are sure dangers, as well.

With dire need the temptation is to curse God. Coveting, grumbling, complaining attend this condition. Oddly, pride can compel our behaviors, because we think that we deserve better than the lot God has given us. Because we think we are entitled to better, we breach the command of God and either think wrongly about our neighbor’s relative better position (covet) or take action to “level the playing field” (steal).

Is being wealthy inherently sinful? No. Is being poor inherently sinful? No. Neither is better than the other, but the former thinks the latter inferior; the latter thinks the former undeserving.

One seeking to follow Christ faithfully should be very cautious about his attitudes toward his own financial condition, as well as his attitudes toward that of others.