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Life choices

Romans 12: 1 – nn

Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 22 May, 2005

THE BASIC and essential issue for the Christian is, “How do I express the life of Jesus in my world?” Whether we are thinking of career, of life–partner or of area of ministry, that is the issue.

 A couple of weeks ago, we considered our need to have the mind and attitude of Jesus. Today we are looking at some practical applications of this topic. How do I discover and express the mind of Christ in the various situations that I meet?

  I‘ve been in pastoral work for over 20 years now, and have met a lot of people in that time. I believe very much in Original Sin, but I have to say that people are generally not bad because they want to be bad. They are bad because they think that’s the best option — or the only option.

  We all tend to give way to our drives. Food, money, sex — these are very strong drives. Have you ever arrived early at a party and seen all those delicious cakes put out ready for the guests? You know the temptation to take “just one”. Sometimes that temptation to take “just one” comes back every time you walk by the plate, doesn’t it?

 Each of us has been tempted by an offer of easy money — or by money left lying around. Most of us have experienced sexual temptations, to do outside marriage what belongs within marriage. We have all been tempted to gluttony.

 Our human wants and desires do drive a lot of temptation directly.

  Long ago, a young woman attended here for a time. She was seriously promiscuous. She gave way to sexual temptation regularly. But she talked to me about the problem.

 Certainly, she experienced normal human drives. But she was also driven by fears — fears of loneliness, fears of being unloved, fears of being unattractive. The fears gave extra impetus to the temptations.

  The two biggest drivers of anything we do, or plan to do, are desire to acquire and fear of losing.

 So, when we are under pressure, we are most prone to doing the wrong thing.

  Some people regularly steal or cheat. The bright ones cheat, the less bright steal. At some time in their lives, their desire for financial security has met up with their fears of becoming destitute. They began stealing or cheating because they could see no other way.

 People are rarely bad because they want to be bad. They are bad because they think that’s the best option — or the only option.

 You are not cheats, or robbers, or promiscuous, or doing any of the thousand and one different things that we can do wrong.

  You strive to do right, and I commend you for it.

  But wouldn’t I be silly to ask you, “Are you still sinning?” Your answer would be just like mine. Despte our efforts, who is truly good? We all go on sinning. We all yield to pressures that we ourselves barely comprehend.

 Isn’t the most common driver of our behaviour — after desire itself — fear? Aren‘t we afraid of losing friends, afraid of being judged by others, afraid of missing out, afraid of being cut off from what others enjoy?

  Think how often the Bible tells us not to be afraid. You can see how pervasive, how ubiquitous, fear is. It is an extra layer in nearly every emotion we experience.

  The bully and the coward are alike driven by terror. Fear grips the human race, and controls nearly every action.

  By now you are probably wondering what all of this has to do with careers and life–partners and ministries.

  Well, it‘s simple. The choices we make in these spheres are also driven by desires and fears. And that is why Paul urges us to

...test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.

  Paul wants us to make God–honouring, rational decisions. He knows that we can discover God’s will and know it to be good and acceptable.

 Last week, we read,

Phil. 2:5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus...

  This week, we are looking at how to translate that attitude into action.

  Imagine that you are considering a career.

  There are many pressures related to careers. At high school, they told us, “Forget the old idea that some careers are for girls and some are for boys.” But they still steered boys towards engineering or science or architecture, and girls towards biological sciences, journalism or the arts.

  I did the equivalent of first level German and first level Physics for my Leaving Certificate, and some teachers and fellow students thought that was a bit weird. Physics was a boys’ subject, but languages were for girls.

  I even had a colleague at work say something similar to me recently, and she would be about 40! Old attitudes die hard. Or there was an even younger woman who was surprised that my lettering was neat, because she thought that girls wrote neatly, but not boys.

  When I was leaving High School, I could not think of careers like journalism or language teaching, in part because I was afraid of how people might see me if I made those choices.

  Or what about our life partner?

  There are so many practical considerations. We look for someone to be a good parent for any children we have. We look for someone likely to be healthy or a good provider. We look for someone to enhance our own prestige, someone who looks good getting into a Mercedes or who can speak fluently to a crowd.

  What about someone who doesn’t fit those criteria so well?

  I know a woman whose husband was seriously injured while they were on honeymoon, and suffered brain damage. He has never quite recovered. She had to become the family breadwinner as well as mother to their children. It‘s not what we would choose, is it? But she loves her husband, perhaps more strongly than if he had been fully healthy.

 How much of our decision–making is driven by fears of not looking good, of being controlled by a strong personality, or having to carry a weak personality? How much of our decision–making is governed by the fear that we will not be able to get what we hunger for? As I said, the two main drivers are the desire to acquire and the fear of losing.

  I knew a rather refined young woman who, almost without warning, got engaged to a rude, abusive and, not to put too fine a point on it, stupid young man. He was a loudmouth who said things that didn‘t make sense and threatened people who questioned him.

  His fiancée would not — could not — discuss the situation, even though his behaviour caused rifts in the family and distress to her. She was too afraid of losing what she desired.

 He gave the impression of being caring and protective, which she wanted; the reality was quite different.

  I knew a man who worked in a technical job, who moved from technical job to technical job, and refused to acknowledge that all his interests were to do with people and what people do. He desired the prestige of his position and the career path it gave him. He was afraid of working where he had no simple job title, and no defined career path.

 And what about ministry? I’m sure that most of us have at some time desired to serve in some way that carried kudos, even if it were not consistent with our primary area of gifting.

  I remember when Brian Willersdorf conducted an evangelistic series at our church at Fairfield, and so many of the young men would take their turn to speak at the Christian Endeavour meeting, sounding just like Brian, using the same clichés, and trying so hard to be the evangelists they never would be.

  Jesus said he came as a servant, and that we are called to be servants, but, even in church, we desire reputation and community standing, and look down on the slave role. We fear doing what we ourselves are called to do, because it might not provide nourishment for our egos. We fear that we will lose out.

  Having the Mind of Christ, sharing the same attitude he had, is not such an easy thing. It is not something you and I can control to make ourselves feel better. As I suggested last time, it takes work. It takes getting to know Jesus and the way that he thinks and feels and acts.

  Having the Mind of Christ is a process rather than an event. Even Paul, after many years of ministry when he had to learn to rely on Christ’s leadership in everything, could still occasionally say that, in certain issues, he only thought he had the mind of Christ. We don’t go to Woolworths and get 650g of the mind of Christ in the Deli section and go home to have it installed. It‘s the development of a mindset.

  When I began school, I could already read, so, while the other kids were learning their alphabet, I was sitting in a corner reading The School Magazine. By the time I was in third class, they were beginning to run out of back issues of The School Magazine for me to read.

  The other kids all thought I was a bit strange. They played among themselves, and I read The School Magazine.

  In second and third class, I was having treatment for my eyesight. I wore glasses with a patch over one eye, and had a special bar that I had to use for reading, to try to get both eyes working together.

  The other kids all thought I was a bit strange. They played among themselves, and I read The School Magazine with my glasses on and a patch over my eye and a special bar in front of my nose.

  And so it went on. I wasn’t good at sports, particularly if a small ball was involved, and the rest of the class was sports mad. It was very hard for me to feel I belonged in the groups around me.

  Then, when I became a Christian and began reading the Bible, I began to understand the concept of the Body of Christ, of the family of God. I could see that that was how it had to work, if only out of obedience to Christ.

  I struggled and grappled with those concepts until they began to become a reality to me, and not just a good idea.

  In that area, I had to learn to see things Jesus’ way, I had to begin developing the Mind of Christ.

 Sometimes I feel that that is an advantage, that I had such a hard time getting a grip on the idea of community. For those of you who grasp it intuitively, for those of you to whom it comes naturally, I suspect it can be something you don‘t think very hard about. I have to think hard. I have to consider whether what I am doing is pro–community or anti–community, I have to ask myself, “Is that what Jesus would do?” Seeking the mind of Christ is always a struggle in that area for me.

  All of us have damaged areas where we have to work hard to get something like the mind of Christ. And, when we do begin to grasp what Jesus is on about, even if we are not as good at that thing as someone else we might know, we will always have a treasure, because we won it by perseverence.

  However, we need to start a little further back. I said that we are driven by desire to acquire and fear of losing. And that is where we have to confront our own desires and our own fears, and begin to bring every thought into captivity to Christ.

  So Paul writes,

Rom 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.

  The beginning of finding the mind of Christ in the choices of life is in our relationship with God.

 Paul says,

Present your bodies as living sacrifices.

  I know we are talking of hard things here. We are saying, “I will take up my cross and follow; I will put my hand to the plough and not look back.”

 Without a resolution to change, we will not change.

  Paul’s argument is that, in every dealing with us, God is good. He has been merciful to us when we absolutely did not deserve it. Our only appropriate response is to give ourselves over to him, to be used as he wills.

 The person whose main goal is to become rich can’t experience God’s goodness, because his life is not yet presented as a living sacrifice. The person whose main goal is sexual conquests can‘t experience it, because that desire will always intervene. The person who wants reputation in ministry will fail, because there is no real worship yet.

 But there is also a promise.

  If you, if I, submit ourselves to God and refuse to go the world’s way; if we let our minds be transformed, then we will be able to test and approve what God’s will is. The Greek implies that we will be able to assay God’s will like quality gold, and see that it is good, pleasing and perfect.

 The devil says, “God will rob you!” The Bible says, “In Christ, you inherit it all!” The devil says, “It will all be bad!” The Bible says, “It will be good, perfect and acceptable.”

 But the choice is in our hands. God never gives us the proof and then waits for us to act, because there would never be any faith in that. He challenges us: “Jump in; go for it with all your might; then you will discover by testing how good my will really is.”

 Faith looks at the facts, decides whether there is an ongoing principle involved, and then acts on that principle.

 God calls us to act in faith and discover his will.

  Let’s do it!

AMEN

© Peter R. Green 2005. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. Portions also copyright The Bible, NIV (Zondervan Ltd.)