True Christianity is Not Self-Absorbed
11/22 Reading Portions: 1 Chronicles 17; James 4; Jonah 1; Luke 6
Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)
11/22 Reading Portions: 1 Chronicles 17; James 4; Jonah 1; Luke 6
James 4:3
You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
SELFISHNESS
If read with an eye upon Christ (Jas 1:1), this letter from the Lord Jesus’ younger half-brother should hit home for the Christian. Many of us, in our self-righteousness, miss or even dismiss our own self-absorption and self-promotion. We will readily proclaim heresy and activity of the prosperity doctrine; but forget that because of the corruption remaining in our mortal flesh (1 Cor 15:51-54), we will have the same tendency toward self-gratification. We want blessings, and take action to pursue blessings, and even seek answers to prayer so that we may be better off in this physical world (spend it on your passions). We forget that the very first evidence of discipleship is denying self. Jesus taught,
“If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.” Luke 9:23-24
Sometimes this is a difficult concept for young Christians to grasp, but I believe it is mostly because many more seasoned Christians, even pastors and teachers, have not conveyed properly that if we have been saved by God’s grace, we already have the greatest blessing in the universe for all eternity, the presence of God through the abiding Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus Himself (John 14:37; Heb 13:5). Because Christ has saved us by His amazing grace, we need not seek for self, but instead, because we are now eternal people, we seek Christ’s exaltation. Our personal, temporal passions should no longer be the ruler of our lives. We have a King eternal and infinite. It is Jesus Messiah, our Lord. What then are we to ask for? We are to ask so that Jesus is exalted in our lives. We ask in prayer, just as John the Baptizer said of his own life before it was shortened at the neck,
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30
True Christianity is not self-absorbed, receiving blessings to consume upon our own lusts, but is Christ exalting. And the best way to continue seeing this good work of Christ’s exaltation in our lives is accomplished by encouraging one another that we have been justified by grace through Christ alone, and believe it ourselves. Hallelujah! What a Savior!