Smeagol is Free!
A hermitudinal view of...stuff...


3.28.2006  

Word

2 Corinthians 1:12
For our proud confidence is this: the testimmony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you.

Romans 12:9
Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.

Ephesians 4:25
Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.

John 17:22, 23
"The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me."

There's nothing overtly obvious, at least not to me, that ties these verses together. Nothing, that is, save the fact that when I think of the unity we have as believers in Christ, the stark truth of God's word makes me squirm.

Do I love without hypocrisy? Do I, as Paul exhorts the Romans in the same passage, give preference to others? How do I conduct myself toward my brothers and sisters: in holiness and godly sincerity, and that by the strength granted by grace, or by my own foolish fleshly wisdom? Do I truly see other believers as those with whom I am one body, with Christ as our head? If so, do I conduct myself in the light of that truth? Or do I seek to deceive and break down my own body, rather that build it up? Is my desire to be perfected in unity, to be one, just as Christ is one with the Father? *Sigh*...that's such a high calling...one that looks insurmountable more often than not.

If anything, I write this because I'm a horrible failure at loving. The adjectives are many, yet they are true: selfish, arrogant, prideful, disdainful, conceited, uncaring...the list goes on. Yet that is only one list. Just as true are others far more hopeful: holy, blameless, justified, righteous, loving, sanctified, kind...and more. It's easy for me to become overly introspective and forget that I am indeed changed, that I am truly united with Christ. The life He calls us to is costly, as Bonhoeffer said it is. Such a cost calls me to die to my own pleasures, to mortify those pleasures which are rooted in the self and not in Christ. They call me to a greater pleasure, that of being in union with Christ, and one with His body.

posted by Bolo | 3:47 PM
0 speakage
Free Hit
Counters
Dell Coupons
Daily
Read
Listen
Visualize
Blogging Buddies
Old School
Me
Bug Me
Yore
Factuality
Quotatious