Who Are We?

As I continue my reading through the New Testament, I came upon Romans 1:1 this morning -- "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the Gospel." While it is a short verse, it has two power-packed phrases.

"A Servant of Jesus Christ" -- the word servant literally means a slave; so Christians are to be slaves of Jesus. That means that we live our lives in recognition of several key elements: (1) we belong to someone else, (2) we do His bidding as explained clearly in His Word, (3) we are to work long and hard for our Master because we owe a debt that cannot be repaid, and (4) anything that we produce is for the Master's glory and not our own.

The unfortunate part is that most Christians are not living that way. We have become accustomed to the American dream; so instead of denying ourselves, we indulge and deny Jesus. No wonder, as David Kinnaman in the book unchristian found, the world views Christians as hypocritical and judgmental. If you have not read this book, get a copy. He works for the Barna Group and did a three year study on how people outside the church view Christianity. It is a sobering wake up call to those of us who claim to follow Christ.

"Separated unto the Gospel of God" -- in Christian circles, you will hear very quickly that we are to be separated from this world. Those outside the church will pick up that as "secret code" for the existence of a long list of dos and don'ts. The world knows more of what we stand AGAINST (i.e. abortion) than what we stand FOR; and that is a huge problem!!

When Christ was asked about the greatest commandment, He made two statements in Matthew 22:36-40: (1) love God with everything that you have and (2) love neighbors like you love yourself. If we do not love God with ever fiber of our being, then it is impossible for us to love others unselfishly. Getting closer to God everyday through prayer and reading His Word will give us pause as we realize how bad we really are. As His Word permeates our lives, that will produce a love for others so that we give of ourselves for their benefit. It is unconditional love to those that hate us, dislike us, or know nothing about us that will allow them to see Jesus in us. At that point, they will ponder what is different in our lives and then the conversation begins.

My youth pastor, Doug Roberts, used to always say: "People won't care how much you know until they know how much you care." I believe we, in Christianity, have missed the boat in our evangelism. We want to argue with people's heads and completely neglect touching their hearts. If we get others to see the love we have for them (because of the love Christ has for us), then we WILL have the opportunity to share the faith that we cling to. Typically, though, we express verbally the fact that we love others and will help them; however, our actions rarely meet those words.

So, in sum, you are a servant of Jesus and others MUST see Jesus in you. Without that fact, you are not truly His servant and others will continue to see a watered down version of Christianity. Remember what's at stake here -- the reputation of Jesus Christ as exhibited in your life! That, my friends, is very sobering....