Recently I’ve noticed a few describe their experience and understanding of Christianity as something like this:
“Living life the way Jesus did works.”
“I want to be a spiritual person like Jesus.”
“I choose to follow the teachings of Jesus because they reflect the highest ideals in ethics and morality.”
While I don’t disagree with the statements above they are not reflective of what it means to be a Christian.
The statements above in essence say, “I use the teachings and/or lifestyle of Jesus in order to experience life in a certain way.” In other words, the “Jesus model” becomes a means to an end and the end is a certain way of life.
Christianity is about having a personal relationship with a living God. Christians don’t use the “Jesus model” in order to reach an end. Rather, Christians relate to Jesus. We do learn how to do life like Jesus and we do seek to practice His ways. But, we don’t have as an end or goal to have wisdom or peace or love or patience or even heaven. To do so would be to make any of those goals too important. There is no goal as great as God Himself.
The greatest “end” for a Christ-follower is to have relationship with God.
“Living life the way Jesus did works.”
“I want to be a spiritual person like Jesus.”
“I choose to follow the teachings of Jesus because they reflect the highest ideals in ethics and morality.”
While I don’t disagree with the statements above they are not reflective of what it means to be a Christian.
The statements above in essence say, “I use the teachings and/or lifestyle of Jesus in order to experience life in a certain way.” In other words, the “Jesus model” becomes a means to an end and the end is a certain way of life.
Christianity is about having a personal relationship with a living God. Christians don’t use the “Jesus model” in order to reach an end. Rather, Christians relate to Jesus. We do learn how to do life like Jesus and we do seek to practice His ways. But, we don’t have as an end or goal to have wisdom or peace or love or patience or even heaven. To do so would be to make any of those goals too important. There is no goal as great as God Himself.
The greatest “end” for a Christ-follower is to have relationship with God.
1 comment:
In my small group last week, we had this same discussion - I believe it is all about a relationship with God. We were discussing the book "The Shack" and the other person did not like how God was portrayed and couldn't understand why I said it helped me and perhaps others to see that what God wants is a relationship.
Post a Comment