Absolutes

*Scriptures take from Biblegateway.com

Matthew 6:19-24

A lot of what Jesus speaks about in the sermon on the mount can make us feel uncomfortable. Nothing, for me personally at least, makes me feel as uncomfortable as being given only two options. I enjoy living in a nation where I don't have to be just a Democrat or Republican (I can be Independent), where I don't have to like just vanilla or chocolate (I can choose strawberry), where I can choose from the hundreds of channels available on the cable network my campus provides. I like having options. In these Scriptures passages, however, Jesus makes it blatantly clear that there is no gray area, only black and white.

Side One:
Here you can lay up treasures on earth. Store your money away so that you can buy that well-deserved vacation. Splurge a little bit more than you would normally on those shiny trinkets. Get clothes that are trendy, knowing full well that you're going to buy a new wardrobe next year so you won't be outdated. Watch a movie or television show that you know has images you'll struggle to get out of your mind. Serve both God and "mammon" (riches).

Side Two:
Here you can lay up treasures in heaven. Give, give, give until you feel what I like to call "the pinch." It's a idea that C. S. Lewis (my bff if he were alive) propagated, that you haven't given enough until it starts to hurt a little. Spend your overtime pay on sending an orphan a Christmas basket or feeding a missionary family in persecuting nation. Give a little extra in the offering basket this Sunday because of that touching sermon, even though you were saving that money for that dream bag that finally came on sale. Filter your field of vision to exclude shows/movies that make you depressed and bitter. Learn to love God first and let that love lead you to love in all its other forms (loving my neighbor as myself, for example).

I write to you plainly because here it is plainly presented. Darkness is the absence of light, so where there is light, darkness cannot also be. Where there is holiness and righteousness, there cannot also be sin. It's hard to accept in a world where we see a spectrum to everything, but daily I see reminders that the boundaries of the standards by which we must live are clearly delineated by Scripture. John's first epistle can be particularly convicting:
"... let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil ... Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him ..." [1 John 3:7-9]
Or what of Paul's epistle to the Romans:
"Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. " [Romans 6:16-17]
Earlier he writes how "our old man was crucified with [Christ]" [verse 6] and that when Christ died, "He died to sin once for all" [verse 10]. When we choose to go back to our old ways, we are walking in old man and not the "new creation" [2 Corinthians 5:17] God made us to be, and we, essentially, put the cross to shame by denying its power to transform our lives. What examples then are we demonstrating to the world? Even more so, how can we possibly be say we are living the life of someone who is "saved from sin" if we return to that which enslaved us?

There is so much more I could write. But honestly, what more can I say? If this devotional is making you feel uncomfortable, then good. How much more do I feel uncomfortable by writing it? But it must be said. The summary is given by Jesus Himself in John 14:15 - "If you love Me, keep My commandments." Holiness is not a optional way of living Christianity; it is the only alternative to sin. The decision is ours.

God bless,
Alisha -/-