No Good Deed Goes Unpunished? ...

Intent is difficult to define.  What we perceive about any given event is then influenced by our own mind-set at the time.  If we witness someone crossing the street, and at the time we are coming from a joyful place, where things are going well for us, our world seems full of potential, and our dreams are right around the corner – we tend to associate good or at least neutral “motives” or intentions with the scene of someone crossing the street.  However, if we have just been burglarized, our security shattered, our wealth threatened – the person crossing the street may well be in the midst of a get-away.  It is the same person performing the same action, but how we “judge” or evaluate that identical action is not influenced by the person, but influenced by where our own mind is at the time. 

It is not that dissimilar when someone does something nice for us.  We may think the gesture comes from a place of love in the heart of the giver.  This is particularly true if our own heart longs to show love to others.  But we may also think the gesture is done for an ulterior motive, we become suspicious of what we will be obligated to do if we accept it.  We begin to resent the person for placing us in an uncomfortable situation – looking ungrateful if we refuse, or being obligated if we accept.  The negative evaluation of the identical gesture can lead us so far, as to begin to avoid the giver, or worse begin to take pre-emptive or retributive actions against them.  It is sad to say, but a heart that loves only itself, or itself above all others, tends to see “good deeds” through the lens of selfish motives.  We accuse others of the behaviors we are familiar with … because we see them in ourselves.  We come to believe that others are incapable of “good deeds” because we too are largely incapable.  But in typical fashion, we deny the transference, and convince ourselves, this is just being “practical” in our world.

How a “gift” is received is a reflection of the heart of the recipient – it is not a statement about the motives of the giver.  To offer something freely, regardless of how it is received, perhaps in spite of how it is received, is a reflection of the heart of the giver.  Christ offers us the “gift” of freedom from sin.  But in our sin, we judge that He is just trying to take away from us, something that we hold dear.  He may be trying to take away our “fun”, and leave us with the “drudgery” of obeying the law.  Yet Christ continues to offer us this “gift”.  When we begin to realize, that there is no more precious a “gift” that He could have offered us, the realization is a reflection of change in our own hearts.  His “gift” has not changed, our responses have.  We may have at first rejected what He offered, and even been resentful that He would put us in the uncomfortable situation of – looking ungrateful if we refuse, or being obligated if we accept.  We may have gone so far as to avoid Him as the giver, or worse to take pre-emptive or retributive actions against Him.  But He loves and offers just the same.  And when once we accept, He transforms how we think about the same “gift”, forgiving us completely for what we might have done against Him and His “gift” in the past.

If our Savior must endure this rejection, this improper judgment of His motives, this devaluation of the most precious “gift” in all of history as He works to redeem you and me – can we seriously think our minor good deeds will not undergo the same phenomenon as we attempt to reach out to those around us?  Peter understood this phenomenon.  He had witnessed it first hand as Christ healed the lame man, opened the eyes of the blind, and raised Lazarus from the dead.  The beautiful gifts of Christ, were judged by the religious leadership of His day, to be the acts of Satan, because those actions did not conform to the authority of the church.  Having seen this, Peter is keen to share the foreknowledge with the early Christian church, not only about what to expect, but about continuing to return good for evil in spite of how it is received.

Peter continues in chapter 3 of his first letter to the church beginning in verse 14 … “But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; [verse 15] But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:”  Offending an oppressive authority carries a substantial risk.  A citizen of North Korea who openly insults the “precious leader” is likely to see his life forfeit as a result.  The same is true in religiously based totalitarian states; offer offense to the dominant religious thinking or ideology and lives are lost as a result.  It was no different under Roman rule, perhaps only that it might have been worse.  Insulting Kim in Korea is a rule everyone can understand.  In Rome, that could apply to a host of people.  Insulting Islam in a predominantly Muslim country is a rule everyone can understand.  In Rome, there were a myriad of religions that came in and out of favor, each particular “god” having its own set of rules and regulations.

Peter has just given wise counsel in our last study about the secret to living a long and happy life.  In a nutshell, he offers that it may be as simple as keeping your tongue in check.  When you speak, avoid malice, mischief, and speak with the love that comes from the inherited blessing of working in conjunction with Christ for the redemption of the lost.  He states in the above verses, that even after following that advice, there may be those who continue to judge you harshly, and threaten your very existence.  But the consistent response of returning good for evil, will drive your oppressor to wonder “how” you are able to respond this way.  Peter then offers, that this event, is what we longed to see.  Stand ready to give an answer of the reason for hope within you, in both meekness and respect, to the one who asks.  It is not in returning equal violence and equal evil for what is done to us, that our oppressor begins to cease his actions.  His heart remains untouched.  But when he is offered love for evil, his heart must understand this, and in so doing can become changed.

Peter continues in verse 16 … “Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. [verse 17] For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.”  Keeping a positive consistent, Christ-like love in our speech, has the added benefit of freeing our hearts and minds from the guilt that comes in speaking or doing evil to others.  Those who are consistent in loving others, sleep better.  And “if” we are to suffer because of the wickedness of other men, then let us suffer for our good deeds and good speech – than to suffer for the gossip we spread, and the lies we tell, and the jealousy and judgmental-ism that so often cross the “Christian’s” lips.  To suffer for our misdeeds is only justice; there is no nobility in it.  But to suffer for our good deeds, is to walk the path of patient love that our Savior tread before us.

Peter continues in verse 18 … “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:”  Peter reminds us that Christ suffered and died, not only for those who would accept His gift, but for those who would choose to reject it.  He died for everyone, not just for His followers.  He longed to have all the world experience the freedom from sin He offers.  But how an individual responds to Christ is the choice of that person.  Christ died for him.  How he responds is left to him. 

Peter continues in verse 19 … “By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;”  The New Testament does not talk much about the prison ministry of Jesus.  There are some interactions between the disciples of John the Baptist when he is imprisoned that are recorded.  There is also the parable Jesus tells of the separation of sheep and goats based in part on how they visited those in prison.  John’s gospel states that many more things Jesus did while he was here, so many that no volume of books could contain the whole of them.  So perhaps Peter here alludes to a personal knowledge that Jesus did indeed visit those in prison to offer them hope.  Or perhaps Peter here is talking about how Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit is able to free us from the prison of sin and self-slavery we have embraced.  In either case, our Lord is highly concerned about our freedom from sin, and often is misjudged by us, throughout the process of salvation.

Peter continues in verse 20 … “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.”  Notice that even when the world was judged to be so continually evil that it must be destroyed, the sentence was delayed for 120 years, so that perhaps some of mankind might reconsider and be saved.  Entry into the ark was not forbidden by Noah, it was encouraged.  He preached for 120 years about what was coming, and how mankind might be saved.  It takes very little risk to enter the ark “just in case” Noah is right.  It takes tremendous arrogance to ignore the first-hand accounts of Adam and Eve who lived nearly half the time between the garden of Eden and the flood.  It takes tremendous arrogance to ignore the angel with the flaming sword who stood at the entrance to the garden of evil to insure mankind no longer ate from the tree of life.  There was first hand and physical proof of the existence of a creator God.  Yet not a single soul took the precaution of entering the ark “just in case”.  Only Noah and his family were saved.  The disobedient were set in their course, despite the mercy God continued to extend to them.  And as it was in the days of Noah …

Peter continues in verse 21 … “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: [verse 22] Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.”  Peter compares the flood where evil men died, to the symbolism of baptism, where the evil in our hearts is drowned by our choice to submit and follow Jesus Christ.  Peter qualifies that it is not our actions that save us, but our willingness to be transformed by God, brought into harmony with how God thinks, and loves others.  As we emerge from the baptismal waters, so Christ emerged from the grave.  As Christ is ascended into heaven, and has been given all power and authority sitting on the right hand of God, so He is able to save us from the slavery of sin that would have cost us our lives and existence, and bring us home to Him.

The process of our salvation is founded on the patient love of God.  God allowed time for the people in Noah’s day to hear the message, and have the chance to see redemption.  It was the people of that day that refused to be saved.  The actions of the life of Christ did not return hate speech for hate speech, instead constantly trying to guide the Pharisees and unbelievers to the knowledge of the love of God for man.  It was the Pharisees who refused to ever embrace that love, with only few exceptions.  Peter reminds us that our consistent positive love-centered speech is not always going to be received well.  We will be judged harshly, often by those most in need, and most steeped in evil.  But that should not diminish our showing love to them; instead it should serve to increase it.

The end-game for God is about our redemption.  He was willing to endure tremendous pain and suffering and insult, even death, in order to see us redeemed.  He is willing to forgive everything we have done to Him, just hoping so fervently to see us accept His love, and be with Him forever.  There was no price He was not willing to pay to see the job done.  Nothing He would not endure.  That kind of love is limitless, infinite, and beyond our comprehension.  The best we will ever do is accept it.  We may never come to fully understand it.  Our carnal nature can simply not make sense of it.  Yet it exists.  If evil is to be eliminated, it must be by a choice for something else.  His love provides a reason to seek that choice.  His love provides a method of seeing that choice become a reality.  His love abides with us before, during and after this process takes place.  His love is everything …

 

The Theme of Destination ...

In the preamble of his first letter, Peter has identified himself as an apostle of Christ.  He outlined a mini-discourse of the process of salvation, and how the Jesus Christ of his own day, ties back to the hope of the prophets of God who went on before.  Peter is keen to show his readers that the true religion of God is not inconsistent, nor did it only begin at the first advent of Christ, but that like all things, it originates in the love of the Father God Himself.  In what now begins of his exhortation to his readers, Peter is concerned about several themes.  He worries about the infiltration of the concept of “cheap grace” that is - the idea that forgiveness becomes license TO sin, rather than a means of escape FROM sin.  He worries about Christians who believe that gossip, idle conversation, and speaking harmless fun at the expense of another has already done damage to the cause of Christ, and to the souls who engage in these practices.  And he worries that already the church could lose the reputation of being those who value love above all else.  So as he begins, he calls the minds of his readers, to the goal of our transformation, to the destination we all aspire to reach.

Peter continues in verse 13 of chapter one of his first letter exclaiming … “Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.”  The first step on the road to our homeward bound destination of being with Jesus Christ begins with looking towards that event.  We must set the priorities of our lives on being with Christ.  It should be the first thought that occupies our minds, and guides our interactions.  It should become an integral part of our motivation; that will in turn affect our actions.  To be “alert” is to be aware, that our natural state is one of carnal desire, and love of self.  We must not become numb to behavior we have so long indulged, but rather understand its impact on our lives.  It is sobering to understand the pain our sin causes us, the ones we love, the ones who love us, and our God.  It is not a casual or meaningless thing, the behavior behind self-love.  But the intent is not to become lost in our past; rather it is to set our hope on grace.  Our destination is achieved through the transformational power of His grace on our hearts of stone.

Peter continues in verse 14 … “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.”  Children do NOT possess the entirety of knowledge this world and experience have to offer.  Our transformation is not about how much we know.  It is not about a mastery over our past and our motives.  Rather it is a surrender to a Parent who is able to protect us, guide us, and teach us – with the full knowledge that our Parent loves us and love alone motivates His actions in our lives.  We obey “without understanding” everything there is to know about why we do it, or why we should.  Obedience becomes the natural result of a trusting child who is sure of their Parent’s love.  We obey without “thinking” about it.  Our lives are not meant to continue in the former path of self-destructive behavior that causes pain to everyone.  They are meant to take the knowledge of the absolute love of Christ, and allow Him to transform who we are, receiving His transformation in the humility and willingness of a small child.

Peter continues in verse 15 … “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; [verse 16] for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”  The quest for perfection, and thereby for a life without the pain sin causes, leads us to the ultimate goal of being like He who has called us.  We are in the very process of learning to love like God loves.  We are in the very process of learning to think like God thinks.  Our motives are to become like His motives.  Our actions are to become like His actions.  We are to become Holy in ALL we do, because holiness or the perfect love of others, is becoming the whole of “who” we are.  Our rebirth into Christianity, our exodus from self-love and chains of slavery to sin, are broken.  We are on the path towards becoming like Jesus Christ in how we love, how we think, and in what we do.  This is our destination.  The end-game for believers is not a city of gold.  Nor is it an eternal life where everything we need has been provided for us already by the heart of a loving God.  No, our destination is bigger than that, it is more important than that.  It begins here, in becoming Holy and perfect, as He our God, is Holy and perfect.

Peter writes in verse 17 … “Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.”  Realizing our perfection is the gift He brings to us, the transformation of literally “who” we are, we should remember this world is simply not our home.  We are travelers here.  We are foreigners in a world that prizes self-love.  Their ways, our own former ways, are to become strange to us.  We are citizens of a different kingdom, one born in the heart, where love for others is paramount.  This love for others is born in the heart of our God.  It defines His holiness.  And through His gift of transformation to us, it infects who we are, to the point where we do not understand the ways of those still steeped in the choice to remain blind and chained to self.  We have respect or “fear” that those who remain in darkness have such a desperate need of the light.  But we ourselves, have no desire to remain in darkness.  Instead we embrace the light of His love, and in turn want to reflect His love to those who still remain in the dark.  We are foreigners in a world of sin, missionaries with a mission to reflect His light by how we love others, into a world that yet to understand unselfish love.

Peter continues in verse 18 … “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, [verse 19] but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”  Here Peter reminds the affluent of this world, that our transformation cannot be bought.  We are NOT redeemed because we “buy” our way into his kingdom with great offerings of gold and silver.  God has no use for our money.  When we realize its complete lack of value, we begin to understand that.  Money then becomes a tool in which we can aid the lives of others.  Its only value becomes in how we can use it for anyone other than ourselves.  At that point, a ten percent tithe, becomes ninety percent too little.  At that point, we grasp the concept of the widow’s mite, who having next to nothing, gladly parted with everything she had, with no thought of how difficult her own life would be leaving that temple with literally nothing in her hands.  The wealth offered us by the hard work of our parents is not the birthright we seek.  The blood of Christ offers us a life unburdened by the desire to amass wealth we can spend on ourselves.  We lose interest in the health of our investments, and unburden ourselves from the cares that accompany the rich of money, and instead take up the concerns of the rich in love for others.

Peter reminds his readers that our gift came from a perfect source as he continues in verse 20 saying … “He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. [verse 21] Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”  Jesus Christ volunteered to save us before we were even created.  Imagine the so great love of God, that knowing in advance that we would choose badly the love of self instead of trust in Him, He would create us anyway.  He loved us so much, He did not prevent our very existence.  But instead loved us before we sinned, loved us after we sinned, and gave up His own life to redeem our lives, so He could love us forever.  We understand the love of the Father, through the life and the love of Jesus Christ.

Peter writes in verse 22 … “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. [verse 23] For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.”  Here again is the destination we seek and we find.  Here again is what the gospel is all about.  We find obedience, we find the Truth of Jesus Christ, in a deep abiding love in our hearts for one another.  Our rebirth into this way of life, our rebirth into loving like He loves; is not founded on a passing ideology, a specific set of doctrinal interpretations, or flirtation with self-denial based on a strength of will.  It is founded on the enduring WORD of God.  It is founded on Jesus Christ alone.  It is not the texts of the prophets of old, and their interpretation or guidance that can save us.  It is the living God those texts were meant to point us to.  It is not our doctrinal uniqueness, or depth of understanding of the Bible today, that will transform us, it is the Christ, the entirety of scripture points us to that alone can change who we are. 

Our purity and our obedience and our knowledge of Truth (that is of Jesus Christ who is the Truth), are evidenced and made manifest in our deep and abiding love of one another.  The gospel is not based on the truthful condemnation of those who are obviously guilty of the sins we accuse them of.  It is instead based on the redemptive love that would forgive those sins, heal that pain, and embrace that heart, even while it warred against the love that worked to reach it.  The gospel story is not one of punishment for what we deserve.  It is about rewards we do not deserve but receive anyway.  This is the nature of love; willing to die itself, than to see the object of its affection suffer in any way.  Our purity will not be found in the condemnation we heap upon others.  It will be found in our patient love of others when they do NOT deserve that love.  Our obedience will be evidenced as we find ourselves more than willing to forgive the actions of others that deeply hurt us.  We do resent forgiving them; instead we praise the reconciliation that forgiveness is able to accomplish.  Our goal is to see love reign supreme, and we like Christ, are willing to pay any cost to see that happen.

Peter then concludes this portion of his exhortation by reminding us that our current mortality is not what is important as he continues in verse 24 saying … “For, ‘All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, [verse 25] but the word of the Lord endures forever.’ And this is the word that was preached to you.”  Our bodies age and decay in this foreign land.  But the love we reflect will reap a harvest in a life well beyond this mere existence.  The WORD of God endures forever, and the preaching done for his readers, was ever to point them to this WORD.  It is not scripture that Peters ascribes so much praise unto, it is Jesus Christ who embodies the word of God.  The prophets of old have value in that they foretold the love of God that was made manifest in Jesus Christ.  Without the coming of Jesus Christ, the words of the prophets lack the fulfillment and deep meaning found only in Him.  The reality of Jesus Christ however, makes what was foretold in the past, evidence of a God who knows the future, our future.  We can take hope that the destination of perfect obedience, found in perfect love for others, is based in real promises of Jesus Christ who is forever alive in our hearts as we permit Him access.

But the counsel of Peter was only just beginning …

 

Gossip and the Rumor Mill ...

The scarlet letter, a public symbol used to brand the adulteress, thus humiliating her and serving as a warning to rest of the community.  Today we would not think of using such tactics … publicly.  But between friends and confidants, we are free to share our opinions on stories we have heard about the failings of various brothers and sisters in our church.  If a church leader is suspected to be found in some sort of compromising position, it becomes fodder for the membership, and excuse to warrant our own various objections to offerings, attendance, or any other element of worship we simply do not enjoy.  Harmless gossip after all is innocuous right?  What real harm can it do?  Shouldn’t a community of believers show an interest in what happens in their own church?

The TV images of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson in the 1950’s presented America with an image of family life.  Divorce was a dirty word.  Just being divorced and attending a church would often immediately bring condescending looks, and social slights, enough to let the sinner know their place in the community.  Women would stand guard over their husbands to insure the recently cast out, would not attempt to take their man to cover the loss.  So too would interracial couples find a hard time with acceptance in either community.  Christians would tacitly accept them, but not usually make them a part of the inner circle.  Nominal acceptance with back door critique was the norm for the day for years to come.  Fast forward 50 years and these earlier improper treatments have all but vanished.  Not because divorce is gone, but because it is so wide spread it now dominates the membership.  Mixed families, children from other marriages, step children, all now are commonly seen in the pews and the “stain” of divorce is now too common to make much ridicule against.  So too, racial prejudice has subsided to a great degree.  It is not gone entirely, but it is no longer politically correct to express it publicly, so it now only lives in the dark recesses of the unchanged heart.

How a Christian treats his enemy is a telling event.  But how a Christian treats his brother speaks volumes more.  Gossip, at its core, is about making one feel better about themselves at the expense of another.  Rumors, by definition, include the various thoughts, feelings, and preferences of the person speaking.  Rumors are seedy, unverifiable stories, usually designed to achieve a particular result.  To spread them, or relay them if it makes you feel more comfortable, is to be a gossip.  The only proper response to a rumor is to quash it entirely.  But instead most folks who indulge in the listening or spreading of rumors add their own embellishments to the story as it is relayed.  Most of us would focus on the victims of the gossip and discuss the harm that comes to them from this practice.  That is well known, but the damage continues.  I believe the more salient focus should be on the damage that is done to the gossip than to the victim in their stories.  If the gossip truly understood what is happening to them, perhaps the practice would disappear altogether.

A need to feel better.  A need to be respected and heard.  A need to matter.  All of us crave these things.  Our sins have so long beaten us down, that some of us decide to compare ourselves to others in order that at least comparatively we can begin to feel better about our own lives.  We reason that we may not like someone else, but at least we don’t go beat them up.  Of course the person guilty of assault reasons that at least he did not kill the guy.  The murderer then reasons that at least he only killed the guy who deserves it, not his entire family.  The mass murderer then reasons that at least he did not kill as many people as Hitler.  Hitler reasons he is doing God’s work.  Thus an entire chain of Christians reason that at least they are not quite as bad as their neighbors.  But ALL suffer, all remain in pain, and none find relief from it.  Comparative salvation is not salvation at all.  Comparative holiness is nothing holy at all.  It is vain empty pursuits to bury pain, rather than find a way to end it.

When we embrace the idea of “relative salvation“ (or this sin is not as bad as that one), we implicitly accept the pain that comes from our own sin.  In addition, our focus on the sins of others, leaves us focused only on sin - period.  We do not look to Christ for relief from our own sins, nor can we in any way effect the life of our brother who is also in sin, so at the end of our investigation we have accomplished nothing.  We are no better because our brother is found to be in sin.  He remains in pain as well.  This kind of thinking is what the devil longs for.  Instead of an end to our own pain and evil, we extend its life by ignoring it, and comparing it to the lives of others.  We make our own lives seem even better by embellishing what we know of the failings of others.  In so doing we lie to ourselves, as well as to those we talk with.  We want to believe our own lies.  We need to believe them.  For if we face the unvarnished truth about ourselves we see our own evil up close and personal.  We are then forced to admit we are NO better than anyone we know, probably worse when it comes to it.  This is a truth we wish not to find or admit, but truth remains regardless of our desires.

It is an incredible waste of time and life.  Instead of focusing on pain, why not focus on the cure to pain.  Instead of searching for meaning by comparison, why not allow God to create meaning within you?  A life that matters, a life that will be remembered, a life that will be missed in this world and honored in the next is not a life of pain, but a life of love.  When a person dies, we miss them the most if we loved them the most, and even more if THEY loved us the most.  We do not miss the ones we never knew.  We do not mourn the loss of random strangers.  But our hearts break when one who spent their lives loving and giving to us is taken away by the pain of evil’s ultimate reward – death.  The sting of love lost is keen and is remembered.  Most folks do not miss the absence of a gossip, in fact, most prefer it.  But to lose a loving servant of God is mourned by every life that person touched.

A change of heart is needed, and one is offered.  To change the life of a gossip, one must begin by allowing Christ to change how we think.  We need to value different things.  We need to love in a different way than we understand today.  The feelings of love we have now are dwarfed by comparison to what God is able to install within us when we let Him.  A person may not naturally be drawn to help the homeless or downtrodden.  It costs us our time, our money, and our convenience.  Most of us naturally avoid getting personally involved with “these people” choosing rather to give an offering now and again and let someone else do that actual work.  But when we love like Christ loves, it is an entirely different matter.  Christ while here on this earth, went straight into the ghetto’s.  He spent more time on the Martin Luther King boulevards of His day, than in the places of pomp and spectacle.  He hung out with the hookers, pimps, diseased, and possessed and freed every one of them from their physical and their mental chains.  He broke the bonds of sin that held the weakest in slavery because the weakest knew they could not do it themselves.

Christ longed to teach the Pharisees what it meant to be free from sin, free from the chains that bind us to want to do what is wrong.  But the Pharisees and religious leaders of His day, believed they had no need of this freedom.  They were content to find righteousness in their own actions and self-denials.  They measured their spiritual holiness by comparison with the publicans.  They performed their actions and kept to strict lists to prevent any action that might be deemed inappropriate, but their hearts were completely unaffected.  They did not know how to love.  They desired wrong doing in their core, and denied it in their mouth.  But ultimately, their own self-centered ideas of holiness drove them to kill the only perfect life that revealed their hypocrisy.  Christ came to die for them as well.  He longed to reform their hearts and free them from their chains.  But they would not have it, rather they thought to end Christ and resume their own ideas unchallenged.

The Pharisees and the Publicans both needed a change of heart and mind.  Our actions follow our thinking.  We do what we want to do.  For there to be change, we must want different things.  We must value something else.  We are incapable of accomplishing this change on our own, but we are not asked to perform this work.  Instead we are offered a God who longs to do it for us and in us, and sometimes in spite of us.  All we need do is surrender ourselves to Christ.  Not just to accept that He is our God, or that He created the world, or inspired the Bible.  Those are facts not our personal surrender.  Our surrender is to the idea that we cannot change ourselves and ONLY He can change us.  We need to think differently than we do, and ONLY He can make that happen.  We need to want what He wants, not what we have always wanted.  We need to love like He loves, not like the paltry thing we call love.

When we do start to see people like He sees them, the homeless and downtrodden become the Prince and Princess of England.  Will and Kate are seen in the faces of the dirty street walking, mentally challenged, medically needy who seek only their next fix whatever that may be.  Like Christ, we do not care how they smell.  Like Christ, we do not care what they look like, what skin color they have, how old they are, how lazy they are, how greedy they are, even how dangerous they may be.  Instead, like Christ, we see only hurting children that SO much need an end to their pain.  Our hearts break as we look upon those in such desperate need and we are no longer content to simply give an occasional offering for them.  We need to get involved.  We need to make a difference.  Our hearts explode with love and sitting still in our chairs is no longer an option.  We - MUST - DO - Something.  This is how Christ felt as He walked our earth and saw the pain in so many lives.  He could not rest.  He could not leave the work up to others.  He had to take action.  He loved us too much to sit still and hope.  He got involved and made a difference and 2000 years later billions remember His life.

To indulge in gossip, is to prolong the pain in your own life.  It is to grant an extension to evil, to allow it to remain unchecked and unchanged and it hurts the life of the gossip far more than the lives of those they propagate rumors about.  But it need not be so.  It need not consume the years you have left on this planet earth.  There is meaning for those who seek Christ that they have yet to understand or imagine.  There is love so great that it truly changes how we think and mandates what we do, if we only come to the source of it and allow Him to begin to remake our hearts.  To surrender our desires to Christ is to see them replaced with desires that will echo through eternity and make an indelible impact in our here and now.  The journey to perfection begins as we let our enemy die.  Not the enemy in the world, or even the enemy beyond our sight.  Instead our enemy lies in the mirror.  “I” and my own worst enemy and as I allow Christ to recreate me, it is Christ who is found in me, and “I” who disappears.  This is the beginning of a life of meaning, and an end to the pain we embrace.  Rather than focus on our pain, let us begin to focus only on its cure – Christ.