Monthly Archives: December 2008

A Slave by Choice

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“Slavery” is such a bad word. We don’t like the word because we see slavery as degrading and an insult to human dignity. Indeed it is, but each of us is a slave. That’s not my opinion; it’s a fact stated by the Holy Spirit of God.

16Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

19I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:16-23)

Even though we may not be physical slaves in service to a physical master, we’re slaves to whatever it is that is lord of our life. If your job is your lord, you are a slave to your job. If family if your lord, you are a slave to your family. If Jesus Christ is your Lord, you are, as Paul described, a slave to righteousness.

And that’s the paradox.

I am a slave, yet I am set free! How can this be? Because “Those things [that] result in death” are things that truly ensnare, but “if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed!” (John 8:36)

And the retirement plan is out of this world!

Seven deadly sins

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You’ve heard of them. Ever wonder where the list comes from? (And as an aside, I reserve the right to end any sentence in a preposition, no matter how many English-language gurus there are who read this. If you want to tell me I shouldn’t do it, leave a comment. But I digress…)

Surely the list comes from Exodus chapter 20, right? God must have spoken those in the same breath as the Ten Commandments.

Nope.

Then it must be 1 Corinthians. That church in Corinth had so many problems it took Paul two letters to get them all sorted out.

Nope.

Then whence cometh they? (See? No preposition there. Not at the end anyway.)

First things first. What are those 7 practices every Christian must avoid at all costs? Here they are, in alphabetical order:

  1. Envy
  2. Gluttony
  3. Greed
  4. Lust
  5. Pride
  6. Sloth
  7. Wrath

There they are. Avoid those and you shall live long and prosper, right? Well, maybe, but more on that later. Where did the list originate? Certainly not in the Bible. There are lists of sins in the Bible, to be sure — Proverbs 6:16-19, Romans 1:29-31 and Galatians 5:19-21, to name only three such lists. These lists written by the Holy Spirit, with the hands of Solomon and Paul, were like the 7 deadly sins in that none of them was intended to be a complete list of “avoid these transgressions and live”.

The list most likely had its beginnings with 4th century monk Evagrius Ponticus, though he actually listed 8 “evil thoughts”:

gluttony, fornication, avarice, sorrow, anger, discouragement, vain glory, pride

Pope Gregory I revised the list in the 6th century to become what we know as the 7 deadly sins. I’ve always been a proponent of the idea that there is basically one deadly sin — selfishness. Pick a sin, whether one of the “7”, a violation of one of the 10 Commandments, or any other sin. I believe you can see selfishness (self-centeredness, God-less-ness) at the root of every one of them. Regardless of how long the list is though, the “avoid these, and you shall live long and prosper” holds true, but I prefer to think in positive terms. Certainly the Bible teaches that we should run from the devil (Matthew 4:10, et.al.), that we should shun evil companions (1 Corinthians 15:33), and so on. But even a cursory study of the Bible reveals more positive teaching on doing what is right, than negative teaching on avoiding what is wrong.

Indeed, if you love the Lord your God, and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:36-40), you won’t have to worry about avoiding sin; avoiding sin will be natural.

Go to the Light

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Have you ever checked into a motel room and wondered why the only light in the room is one small lamp, or perhaps a couple wall-mounted lamps over the bed? There never seems to be enough light in a motel room. Maybe you feel the same way about your house — never enough light. We want and need plenty of light in our lives, and often turn into a sourpuss after days of not seeing the sun. Our family formerly lived in an area of the U.S. where during the 120 days of November through February, it seemed like 100 of those days were characterized by fog or low clouds. I’m sure the number wasn’t that severe, but there was an awful lot of fog, so it seemed like that much. It was nice to be in a job where I could fly above the clouds and see the light and feel the warmth of the sun.

How about on a spiritual level? Does the economic climate get you discouraged and depressed? Things at work not going well? Where do you look for strength and encouragement? During a time of year where much of the world is focused on Jesus and His birth, it also offers an opportunity to remind ourselves of our true source of Light.

“In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness…The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world” (John 1:4-5 & 9).

“…because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79).

What’s your picture of Jesus as The Light? Someone has pictured Him as a glorious sunrise, flooding light, truth, and grace wherever He went: into the dank corners of the stable where He was born; into the vast, lonely blackness of the wilderness; and into villages and the dusty, shadowed streets of Jerusalem. However you picture Him, He certainly shines the light of forgiveness into our lives, and brightens our eternal future.

Is there darkness in your life where you just yearn for light? We heard a lesson tonight about fear, and how fear prevents us from fulfilling our purpose on earth — to give glory and honor to the One Who put us here. Let the Light of the World truly shine into the darkness of your life, and let the true Light shine through.

(I got the idea for this post from someone else’s blog, but I forgot to take note of where it came from. If these are your words I quoted in the next-to-last paragraph, please write and let me know; I’d like to give you credit.)