Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The James Challenge Chapter Two

Couple socks to the stomach today.

I have been going with Shaina to our Centering Classes which are where we get our check ups with the midwife, and spend a couple hours with other people who are due right around the same time we are.

There are people in there that I naturally am inclined to. I find them more interesting, sometimes I find them less annoying than others in the class. So I gravitate toward conversation with them, toward engaging life with them. And when the others speak up, I find myself tuning them out or getting agitated.

The same can be said in the context of the gospel. There are some that I will readily connect with, share my faith with and engage the gospel with...maybe we get along well, have similar interests, etc. But there are some who have quirks or personalities that I just dislike and so I disengage.

So I pick up James 2 today and the first verse says "My brothers, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?"

Do I really believe? Because if I believe that Jesus is indeed the remedy for sin, hell and brokeness, then my disengagement is hypocrisy. The gospel is meant for every one to encounter and if I am responsible for withholding that opportunity, it is reprehensible.

Which goes to the second jab from James 2. If I really believe...and that belief does nothing to impact the way I live, then I am dead. Not dying...dead. Hypocritical faith is not faith at all. If our orthodoxy (right belief and worship) does not impact our orthopraxy (right living) then it is irrelevant...irrelevant to my life...and others will deem it irrelevant to their lives and to the world as well.

Stop painting an impotent god for the world to see. Either participate actively in the sanctification of your life and the working out of your salvation, or stop claiming association with a God who doesn't work with dead things.

Ouch.

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