A Couple of thoughts from words this week...

There has always been an effort to identify followers of Jesus by external actions and behaviors. It comes with the territory from Jesus “you love me if you keep my commandments.” It seems pretty clear. It never really is.

The Corinthian church had an issue that Paul addressed. They began to measure their devotion to Christ by the manifestation of specific spiritual gifts among their fellowship, specifically speaking in tongues. If you don’t speak in tongues then you don’t have it. You’re not spiritual etc. Followed by “anything you can do I can do better…” you know the song. We try to measure the depth or existence of a relationship by external evidence. It causes us problems because we are measuring with the wrong instrument.
A “Christian” is such because of who they know and not what they know or do or anything else. The measurement is do you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Any answer other than yes is NO. A simple test. My example would be the thief on the cross whom Jesus told “today you will be with me in paradise.” The question is personal and intimate and therefore hard to quantify.

The “what they do” question is a measurement of maturity and possibly commitment. People claim Jesus as Savior before they claim him as Lord. One can be saved and not do much as evidence. The process of transformation has begun but not progressed much. Does that mean they are not Christians if they don’t act how we think they should? Of course not; they just may not have matured much if at all. This measuring stick is often used as a weapon when one has felt wronged by another. “A true (underline true) Christian would not act that way (with lots of self righteous tone whatever that is).” When in fact, they may. We are in a transformation, maturing process. It is ongoing and not complete yet. That is where grace must play a part, allowing Christians to not be perfect as we are not perfect. It’s a hard thing to do to allow them the same grace as we would desire for ourselves. Loving your neighbor and all of that is not easy, getting the board out of our own eye before the splinter in our neighbors.

Personal responsibility seems to be the focus. How do I respond to Jesus and his commands and do I trust him? I have more than enough to keep me busy following Him. I don’t need to take on measurement duties for others. Am I allowing him to transform my very being into His likeness today?