Smack Down [part 1]; The Price of Pride ...

Maybe it is cathartic to sit back in the big easy chair and tune in to one of the various professional wrestling groups present a good old fashioned “smack down”.  The villain gets the applause, but ideally the hero comes back in the end to win it.  While it looks so real, everyone understands that no one is actually supposed to get hurt during the fiasco.  Just a lot of melee, chairs getting thrown, people tossed outside the ropes, and a conclusion that seems to leave the audience coming back for more.  I cannot honestly say I am a fan (at least not since Tojo Yamamoto ruled the ring some 40 years ago); but sometimes I sure see the appeal of the villain getting what is coming to him.  And the more trash-talk the villain does before his demise, the sweeter the victory when he is defeated.  That idea the villain seems to nurture about himself, that he is “the greatest”, and “he cannot be defeated” – yup, it is that kind of pride that when it goes before his fall, makes the fall just feel awesome (at least for me, and the audience anyway).

And it is easy to carry that feeling into many other areas of life.  The know-it-all kid who is just so certain of everything they say; sometimes it is just a little bit satisfying when life proves they didn’t after all.  Or that boss who is just so sure they are right about pretty much everything; when the facts reveal they weren’t, I get the wrestling flashbacks in the back of my head.  The hardest part about most of these situations is that argument, and debate, are pretty much useless with these folks.  They get an idea in their heads, and they sink their teeth in like a pitbull on a fresh cow bone – hmmm good.  Nothing seems to shake their self-confidence until life hands them a literal “smack down”.  Only then do they realize their certainty was misplaced, and in truth they were wrong.  Whether they can admit they were wrong tells us a bit more about who they are.  But they know it themselves in their hearts no matter what the public persona is willing to admit.

Enter the church elder.  When you practice religion long enough, you begin to sometimes think of yourself as a “church elder”.  It may or may not be a professional part of who you are, but inside, where only you can see, it takes over how you see yourself.  On matters of doctrine, you are the fountain of learning.  Others should come to you for answers, you don’t go anywhere else to get them.  On matters of counseling, or advice, you think your own words at the top of the heap.  From a priority standpoint you see God first, angels second, and then you – in that order.  Now chances are, you either know folks like this, or if you can’t think of anyone like it; it is probably you.  But these people have existed in every faith, since faith started out.  Lucifer was the first one.  He knew the pecking order in his church.  God first, Jesus second, and then him; the chief of all angels.  But pride got him wondering why Jesus was second, instead of him.  And once he started his Pitbull-on-a-cow-bone ideology, nothing could shake him from it.  He reasoned his logic was as good as anyone else’s, maybe even just a good alternative to what God thinks.  Not bad you see, just different.  And why shouldn’t you control your own thinking, and your own destiny?  6000+ years of pain and death have answered that, including killing God.  So for us the verdict is in on Satan.  But we still seem to follow the same line of prideful thinking he did so so many eons ago, even in our own churches.

I find the term “Pharisee forefather” quite useful.  It reminds me, that all the things I read about them going down the wrong path apply just as much to me today.  While I cannot imagine myself plotting to kill Jesus; I do find myself believing I don’t need anyone other than my choices to save myself.  Sound familiar?  How much are “you” the answer in your own salvation; as opposed to Jesus doing it all.  When you don’t see your need, you stop asking for help.  And before you know it, you are cruising down ACDC’s Highway to Hell, the tune still echoing in your ears.  My Pharisee forefathers did not perceive their own needs either.  They reasoned they were “good” people.  They did perform many good deeds (most of them publicly, you know, for witnesses). 

They followed all the rules, that is to say, they invented rules that were even more detailed to insure they followed them.  They knew scripture better than anyone else (even the author).  Just ask them, they would tell you.  They spent hours reading, studying, debating, and learning.  Not so much loving.  But all that other more meaty stuff anyway.  So why on earth would any elder this prepared and this educated, submit themselves to an upstart Hippy with no formal education, who constantly keeps blathering on about love.  Love, Love, Love; He just won’t shut up about it.  Its like wandering through the hills at Woodstock at one of His rallies, instead of a well-controlled, well-planned, formal study presentation with PowerPoint slides and a multimedia setup.  “Get a job and a haircut”.  “Grow up”; life is more than love.  It has to be right?  Right?

But Jesus just had other ideas.  And Jesus could see right through us.  He knew what we thought about ourselves back then, and right now.  And for my Pharisee forefathers, and maybe for me, it had reached a point where perhaps only a good old fashioned “smack down” was going to get through to either of us.  Our pride had gotten so thick, our eyes were crusted over, and we did not see.  Our ears were crusted over so we barely heard.  And the mind was just full of gook.  We needed then, and sometimes today we still need, an OUTSIDE accurate assessment of where we really are; and where our words lead.  Jesus was here to reconcile, reclaim, and re-create us all.  That is to say, ALL of us, are in need of this.  Perhaps it had come time to tell us more directly.  To get us to stop, and roll back our words, and our thinking.  Maybe the hair isn’t important at all.  Maybe the job of redemption should be the only job we care about.  Maybe the Author of our scriptures will always know them better than us, and it is time we seek His wisdom instead of constantly offering our own.

Matthew starts the story of this in his gospel to the Hebrews in chapter twenty-three picking up in verse 1 saying … “Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, [verse 2] Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: [verse 3] All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.”  Many things to unpack here.  First, Jesus recognizes that organized churches do have a need for servant leaders, who are willing to carry that responsibility.  In days of old the phrase sitting in the seat of Moses, meant carrying the weight of decisions and leadership within the church.  Jesus does not complain about this.  Nor does he say, throw the bums out.  Instead, He offers support to them, by asking His followers to listen to what they say.  To pull the truth from the words is paramount.  To attempt to use humans as role models does not work out so good.  While our Pharisee forefathers were well equipped at speaking; they did not seem to have a clue how to go about living it.  Sound familiar?  Pride does that.  Pride keeps us from submitting, and causes us to think we already know it all – even though our lives clearly show we don’t.

Jesus continues in verse 4 saying … “For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.”  The Pharisee and the modern-day legalist share a common phenomenon.  When in doubt, create more rules.  Expand the list.  Make the do’s and don’ts clearer and easier to understand.  This will address action.  But it does not touch motives that drive behavior in the first place.  And so it is flawed.  But as it usually goes, the modern-day legalist, and our Pharisee forefathers get tired of trying to follow so many other rules.  And they give up on all of them.  Hoping God will just forgive them, because it is just too hard to be saved.  A lie the devil longs to enforce for each of us.  This is the problem with these burdens; they never came from God.  They exist because we do not understand harmony with God, because we continue to refuse to submit to Jesus, and let Him re-create us in that image of harmony.  Pride keeps us from allowing Jesus to save us, making us believe it is all up to us to do it.

Jesus continues in verse 5 saying … “But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, [verse 6] And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, [verse 7] And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.”  Earning that “good” person title is exhausting, especially when your heart was never in it.  Our modern-day saints who do good works, in order to be known as saints, who do good works, are modeling very old, failed, behavior.  And “titles”, don’t get me started on “titles”.  I am the chief sinner in this regard; always insuring my career path had ever escalating titles that sound important.  The work was the same, whether you lead, manage, or innovate.  But the escalating titles were always meant to show progression and greater responsibilities.  So how could this defective trait of my pride not follow me into the hallowed halls of the church.  Where once I craved the title “elder”, I have learned it is now something I want nothing to do with.  The more I learn, the more I realize I do not know.  But the more I have come to see the wisdom of Jesus knows everything, and truly is The Truth.  So I understand and can equate with my Pharisee forefather, looking to be seen as a “master” of the word.  When in truth, there is but one Master, and it is not us.

Jesus then lays out what He wants His new church to look like picking up in verse 8 saying … “But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. [verse 9] And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. [verse 10] Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.”  So long to “titles”.  Easy to pick on the Catholics for their use of the title “father”, as this is specifically ruled out by Jesus in plain English.  But the word “master” is equally thrown out.  And do we in our modern lexicon of terminology in the faith exclude specifically these two words, but instead employ a thesaurus of other titles that come to mean the same thing?  The point Jesus was trying to make is that HE alone is in charge.  If you have a question, going to Jesus is the right place to see it answered.  Getting human advice is a horribly risky thing to do.  Prayer yes.  Humanity no so much.  Better to get your potential advisors to join you in prayer to Jesus to ask what the answer is.  Our only Master, and our only Father, are within the God head, nowhere else.  Church leaders are in fact church servants.

Jesus continues in verse 11 saying … “But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. [verse 12] And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.”  You cannot truly serve without humility.  To see others as equal, or rather, perhaps even more worthy and more important than yourself.  To value the opinions and diversity of others appreciating how it may enrich the body of Christ, rather than attempting to pigeon hole it into the cookie cutter images you prefer.  The body of Jesus is greater than any single part of it, or perspective of any single member.  To discover the journey of getting to know Jesus, is to let go the idea that He fits in a box of your own design.  He does not.  You must admit that God is greater than yourself.  Without humility, your “service” will emanate from motives of deep-rooted selfishness you may not even consciously perceive.  You will walk comfortably with the Pharisees, and hardly ever with the poor, and those is so great need.  Pride finds friends of the proud, and rarely looks for friends in the lower class.  It is pride that creates “class” to begin with.

The time had come for a spiritual “smack down”.  We are not masters.  We are not “father” to anyone else on earth.  Jesus alone is in charge.  Humility matters.  Motives matter.  Being a “good” person is not something you do, it is only something Jesus can create of you.  And service, that comes from a passionate love of others, is where all the goodies are found.  When you get tired of living the way you do, submission to Jesus, is the easy way out.  He does not leave you the way you are; He re-creates you into what He intends you to be, and puts you in harmony with the law, with Love, and with God the Father.  Only then, can true obedience be found, free from lists, and steeped in passion.  No title can sum that up.  Time to think differently, and as a result, to live differently.  This is the gift Jesus was offering and He was not content to leave my Pharisee forefathers or myself, complacent with where we had evolved.  The Truth had started, but it was not to be over yet.

The Smack-Down was to continue …

 

Unpardonable ...

And speaking of criticism … today it seems all the world is a critic.  We freely dole out “advice” to others about how they could have done a better job.  We feel it our duty, our responsibility, after all we are only trying to make the world better.  And the recipients of our advice clearly need it.  None of us are too receptive to the advice of others, but it would seem all of us are inclined to share criticism, often without being asked.  And what happens in the secular arena, being a reflection of character, is dragged right through the doors of the church into the ministry where it least belongs.  Yet our critique is freely shared inside the church with nearly every ministry offered, and every leader or participant who dares to stand in front of us long enough to listen.  We explain that our motive is only to “help”, to make the ministry “better”, or to avoid the pitfalls of the world.  But the net effect is that criticism flows freely, and our own participation flows slowly by comparison, if at all.

Knowing the condition of man, and the struggle of men against sin in all its form, you might just write this off as an “oops” of our characters that will one day get straightened out by the Lord.  This is true if we let it, rather than in true human form, keep attempting to fix it ourselves.  But there is a danger here in this area that is like none other.  As it turns out there is a much MORE dangerous sin, than homosexuality (which most modern Christians believe is by far the worst).  There is much more permanent sin than even murder.  Hard to imagine that, as life once lost sure looks permanent from a “this world” perspective.  And perhaps worst of all, the sin looks so innocuous that most of us don’t even consider it a sin.  We regularly participate without a second thought, and venture in to unpardonable zones with glee.

The first response to this is to recoil.  Perhaps this is only the opinions of the author of this Blog, nothing more.  I wish that it were so, for I am as guilty as any of my brothers and sisters in the faith.  But unfortunately for me, I am unable to argue with the words of my Lord.  Matthew picks up in his gospel in the twelfth chapter in verse 31, not his own words, but the quoting of the words of Jesus Himself as it reads … “Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.”  Ouch.  There is something that sits on the “shall not be forgiven” unto men list.  Blasphemy against Holy Spirit.  So what is Blasphemy then?

For us to claim something is from the Holy Spirit which is truly not would constitute blasphemy.  Not many of us claim to be prophets of God, so the danger here is low for most.  Not many of us claim to have direct communication from the Holy Spirit on any matter, we are nearly all too timid for that.  But for those who do, they better be right, or into this list they march.  But a false claim of authentication is not the only definition or use of this term.  The converse is also true.  To attribute something to Satan that is truly from the Holy Spirit, is also a blasphemy against God.  This is the one church goers are so quick to offer opinions about, particularly the conservative branch of our body.  How many times have you heard the opinion offered … “that music is of Satan”.  Or, bringing drama into the church in the form of Christian plays, or short skits, is of the devil?  It could be an instrument, a method of ministry, a manner of dress, or the message offered.

We have all done it.  We do it still.  We think it our Christian responsibility to “call out” things that we believe are of the world, so as to keep the sacred free from worldly influence.  But the key part of that sentence is “we believe”.  It is our belief, stemming from our opinion and interpretation of scripture, that something is of the world or not.  And those opinions and interpretations are often heavily influenced by our own preferences and traditions.  In these instances, we approach scriptures with the conclusions already made, looking only for texts which will support them, leaving no room to be led, or to find we are wrong.  Yet still we present ourselves with such a level of certainty in our criticism you would think we were ready to wrest the role of Judge from our God and carry it on our shoulders without a care in the world.

Perhaps blasphemy is strong enough as a word in its imagery to give you comfort that you “never” go that far with your critiques.  Perhaps because you associate the word blasphemy with such a level of sin, you believe yourself to be incapable of this, making it something you do not need to worry about.  So Jesus continues as if reading the notions of your heart 2,000+ years later.  He continues in verse 32 saying … “And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.”  The problem extends beyond blasphemy.  The problem extends to merely “a word against” category.  Now even the slightest slight falls into the same unpardonable zone as does full blown blasphemy.

Jesus makes the distinction that all of these same sins against Himself are forgivable.  But NONE of them are forgivable when offered against the Holy Spirit, to be clear, not in this world, or in the world to come.  The Holy Spirit is the third part of the Godhead.  It is an independent entity of God, that we understand little about.  The Bible is about Jesus, and His creation of us.  It is about our fall from trust, embrace of sin, and the redemption of man due to the love and sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf.  Jesus is the main character, and the lens through which we see God the Father.  The Holy Spirit however, while equally active in the redemption of mankind is not what scriptures are written about.  He like a silent partner who does not want the spotlight, seemingly content to work in the background, noticed only when His power moves upon us and we reflect the impossible because of Him.  But He is there.  Some of us hypothesize that the Holy Spirit might be the mom character in the Godhead, but we are as clueless as ants trying to describe the scientific properties of stars.  Perhaps we are only trying to make the Holy Spirit more human, to be more understandable, and in this we mean no criticism.  Stupidity perhaps, but not criticism.

On the other hand, we are quick to judge things, and even results, where the methods are not of our liking.  How many Christian musical artists have been verbally associated with the devil, because we do not like their brand of music?  The phenomenon is not new, organ music was given this attribution 100 years ago.  Now it is having electric guitars, and drums in the sanctuary that gets some folks all riled up.  For some it is worship music that is so repetitive and simplistic it strikes more of inane meditations than music that truly expresses our praise to God.  The point is not what we like or do not like.  The point is the results.  When music points the heart to God, when through our experience of music, we find ourselves coming to Jesus, longing to submit our lives to Him.  The Holy Spirit is in that.  For the Kingdom of heaven is bent on bringing people to Jesus, the method of that journey far less important, than the destination of it.

Our tastes evolve over time.  What we may like as a child expands as an adult.  What we once thought so important, becomes less so as we age.  And Jesus, if we have submitted even our desires to, is the Author behind those changes we do not even understand.  So many Christians are so quick to judge methods, ministers, and messages they feel are inadequate; but whose results are leading of people to Jesus, as being “of the devil”.  This attribution is unfortunately a venture into the unpardonable zone which even after the end of all things is still remembered by the Holy Spirit and not forgiven us.  And why should it be?  We are saying our opinions matter more than the ministry of God to lead people to Jesus.  Better we should say nothing and let the Holy Spirit do as the Holy Spirit wishes.

And do not think this issue is confined only to criticism of music and its various genre’s and methods in the church.  It extends to issues or topics like women’s ordination as well.  This topic is not a debate over doctrine or tradition.  It is a recognition of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, or a rejection of them based on the opinions we hold.  When the Holy Spirit gives the gift of ministry to a woman pastor, and we as the body of Christ reject her because she is a woman, or treat her less because of her sex, we are effectively saying “no” to the Holy Spirit deciding who does what within the body of Christ.  Who are we to make that call, particularly against the wisdom and plan of God?  It holds true to the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are given to young child who we reject because of his/her age.  We reject the word of the Lord, because it comes from a mouth far too young to really understand what they are saying.  And in so doing, we speak more than just a mere word against the Holy Spirit, we are rejecting His gifts, intentions, and plans entirely; based on what, “adult” thinking?

All of these issues boil down to the ego we did not know we held so dearly.  It is the lens of self we apply to things of a spiritual nature, judging what is good and what is not.  But our judgment was never what was needed, our love was.  Leave judging to our God, who alone is qualified.  It becomes then an extremely dangerous thing to offer criticism, which in the end, may well be criticism against the Holy Spirit.  Better we should quell our tongue, and keep our helpful “advice” to ourselves.  Better to uplift, than to offer critical insights.  Better to come from a motivation of pure love, than from a heart who has yet to experience that kind of motivation.  When we seek out the positive, instead of constantly focusing our eyes on the negative, our world suddenly changes around us.  It is this focus on positivity that begins to reflect what Jesus is doing inside of us.  It is a reflection of being someone different than we were before, of allowing the Holy Spirit to decide what we say, and even what we think and believe, and trusting in Him, in God, to not see us follow error to our doom.

Jesus then makes an analogy to help us understand this change phenomenon in our lives picking up in verse 33 saying … “Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.”  Those Christians you know, who never seem to run out of love, who always have something uplifting to say; they are trees of good fruit.  You can just tell they are connected with Jesus, or how else could they say those things, and be that loving no matter what circumstances they are in. or they encounter personally.  On the other hand, those Christians you know who always seems to have a critical word on their tongue, and who appear to love themselves very much, perhaps their families, and very few others; they are Christians of corrupt fruit, for they have yet to surrender who they are, and let Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit begin to truly transform how their hearts love. 

Jesus gets more to the point picking up in verse 34 saying … “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. [verse 35] A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.”  This is about words people, your words.  This is not about how well the pastor did last Sabbath, or how well the missionary was able to convey what is going on in the fields.  This is about what you say throughout the week, and how you say it.  Those critiques you have to offer come from a heart that does not yet truly understand love.  Because when it does, it has no time for words that do not bring comfort and joy.  Those words that tear down, are not found in the halls of heaven, for the hearts behind voice never feel that way in the first place.  And so many continue to write this off as unimportant.

Jesus has other views continuing in verse 36 saying … “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. [verse 37] For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”  It is the words we utter when we give our lives to Jesus that see us justified.  It is our words of surrender that see us transformed.  It is the idle words we think are still not important that see us condemned, as they continue to reflect the fact that we have not yet surrendered, and have not yet seen our hearts truly transformed into His image.  Our words then are a reflection of who we are.  Our words, how we say them, what we say, are a reflection of the hearts that lie under them.  And so many of us, spend so much time, in words of critique; fully ignorant of our sins mounting against the Holy Spirit all because we have opinions we equate to doctrine, and certainty that surpasses the will of God.  All of it a venture into the unpardonable.

But love is stronger than that.  At least the love of God is stronger than that.  That love is strong enough, not to leave us as we are, but to transform us to what He intends for us to be.  Not just what Jesus intends, but what the Holy Spirit intends, and what God the Father intends.  There are three parts to our united God, not just one, or two.  The third part, the Holy Spirit, has a work and mission, and a personality as well; independent of the others, as I am independent of my wife, yet bound to her as one flesh.  The Holy Spirit is united in purpose with the Godhead, and gives man gifts, and power that reflect the will of God.  When we argue against that will, we venture in unpardonable zones we dare not go.  For we will not soon forget our own actions that delayed, or dismayed the ministry of God to redeem man, even though we ourselves are safely in the Kingdom of heaven.  That criticism we offered that disheartened the soul of a potential believer who was so close to accepting Jesus, but saw in us a discouragement they could not overcome will weigh on us forever, a judgment we will not escape, the judgment of our memories.  The treasure of souls who would have otherwise come to Jesus, is a treasure we should never risk, by clumsy words, and “helpful” advice.  If it does not reflect the passion of God’s love through a heart that has been transformed, our silence would be better preferred, coupled only with actions of love in demonstration.

 

God and The Law ...

Laws are a consequence of evil. Laws are designed in an attempt to contain evil, and limit the damage that can be inflicted on others when naked self-interest runs amuck. Laws are an attempt to restore fairness and equality between people who believe their own interests are paramount. In heaven, before there was evil, when everyone including God, had a serve-others-first way of life – there was no need for laws to constrict behavior. There is no need to set a limit on how much you can love someone else, or how much you can care about them, or do good works for them. In efforts to make someone else’s life better, the sky is the limit. But when your first thought in life is what you get out of it, suddenly and irrevocably the need for laws becomes critical.

Satan’s tried and true methods remain the same; one of the more effective ones it to place upon God the characteristics of himself. Satan called God a dictator, with a rigid set of controlling laws, that if disobeyed would result in death at the hands of God. Satan pointed out that despite their collective ignorance that laws could exist, everyone in heaven was in perfect obedience to a set of implied laws, and the consequences of breaking them would bring about their deaths. Since the initial accusation, Satan has done everything he can to attempt to portray God as an obedience driven, generally angry being, who delights in punishing the wicked for their nefarious deeds. But nothing could be farther from the truth.

Laws are a consequence of evil. It is truly ironic that freedom can only be achieved in a self-less society, not in a self-motivated one. Where ambition and avarice rule the day, laws are required to attempt to limit the damage one would impose on others to achieve their personal goals. But where it comes to doing good for others, we would wish no limits in this regard. When Christ walked the earth, He did not stop to heal just one person. In fact, ALL who sought Him for healing were healed. He turned away no-one. Some did not even know who He was before He encountered them. But He knew every name, every soul, every child He had ultimately created. And He met every need He came across, most importantly the hunger for truth and redemption from evil. The impact of His life was so great, in part because He lived it without a thought for what He would get out of it, only what we would.

Those who see God’s laws as constricting their freedom are looking through the prism of evil. It is our natural desire to live for ourselves that sees God’s laws as interfering with our goals and desires. Were we to be freed from our addiction to evil, we would see only the beginning of wisdom in the laws of God. For it is not sacrifice to obey, it is the only plausible way of maintaining a state of joy. The irony of self-service is its inherent link to pain and death. Serving self seems to never bring satisfaction. No matter how rich a person becomes, there seems to be no limits as to how rich they desire to be. The operative word in self-services is always – more. But with the achievement of “more”, there is no relief, no rest, and no relative appreciation – only the desire for even “more”.

Evil, or serving self, has long been portrayed as a “good” thing. Satan’s marketing campaign is well versed in selling us this concept. After all, if you do not look out for number one, who will; the obvious answer, God. But no-one thinks this through very often. Evil itself is actually a simple deviation away from God. And when you deviate away from the source of love, life, and happiness – you are bound only to find pain, death, and misery. This is the true nature of evil. Evil is nothing more than pain and death, sometimes delayed, but always inevitable. It is acts of evil that punish the evil doer over his life, not acts of love and charity. It is thinking incessantly about self-gratification that warps the mind, and keeps one from appreciating beauty and truth. It is the nature of evil to become addictive, to the point of knowingly engaging in life-threatening behavior and being “unable” to stop. Logic is no answer. Will power is helpless against the desires in the mind. Behavior might be managed, but inwardly, evil is a cancer the envelopes the life and degrades the quality of our existence. Evil is the punishment. It is Evil we need to be saved from, not saved to wallow in.

Death is the natural result of evil unrestrained. From homicide to suicide, evil leads nowhere other than the grave for those who embrace it with abandon. This is not a dictate from God, it is instead the nature of evil itself. This is the reason why God contains no evil, He knows what it would do, to Himself, to His creations, to existence period. God is not a balance of good and evil; He is only all that is good. As such our God embodies the ideas of love to others ahead of love to Himself. As John wrote … “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son” Imagine that the only thing of highest value in the universe is the life of God Himself, and He was willing to lay that down, in order to redeem man from evil and the consequences of evil. There was nothing more He could have given. There was no higher a sacrifice to make. His every effort designed to reveal to us what love is, and why it is so much better than the evil we became bound to.

So how does a human become in sync with the divine? How do we transcend our evil natures and begin to live lives of perfect obedience when now we sit chained to our self-service? It is not possible for a leopard to change his spots, nor for a human to break his own chains to self. But what man cannot do, God can easily do. It was always and only His plan to do the work of redemption FOR us. As we submit the will to Christ He breaks our bonds and changes how we think, what we want, and ultimately what we do. Not only does Christ alter our behavior, He alters the thinking behind it. In so doing He perfects us. We do nothing more than allow Him to do so. We submit. He heals. We submit. He transforms us. We submit. He brings us wisdom and truth. We submit. He saves us. This is the only method of escaping the fate of self-destructive evil.

Man requires a savior to be saved. We need help from outside of ourselves if we are to achieve perfection. It is not a question of presenting Christ as the only way to salvation as some sort of threat. It is a question of presenting Christ as the only one who is able to deliver salvation. Many promise, but the results are real with only one. This is why Christ said … “no man comes to the Father, but by Me.” This is not a prideful boast. It is a statement of fact. Only God could redeem us, only love that is so great it would literally die to accomplish our redemption. No other god or man offers us similar salvation, and especially when we were not even looking for it. He did all of this while we were yet counting ourselves as His enemies.

It is our God who wishes us to live truly free, unbound by laws that constrict evil, as evil is to have no place in our hearts, minds, or lives. When we allow Christ to restore our lives to the state of holiness He intends, we become humble servants of others. Our service frees us from the bounds of laws designed to contain evil, and we are free to love unrestricted. We are free to do good to enrich the lives of others. In this alone can we begin to emulate the character of our God. When we live this way, we mimic the lifestyle waiting for us in heaven itself. When we find joy in the giving, we unlock the secret to fulfillment that none can take away. This alone is a life worth living.

The tortured lives of those who reject freedom, reject truth, and reject the love God offers, are lives of purest pain and misery. Death will be the last of act of mercy a loving God can bestow on those whose entire existence is nothing but pain upon pain. Eventually the torture victim begs for death. If allowed, evil would self-destruct. But if unchecked, evil would take out as much as it could with it, along the road to death. This is why God must intervene and save the world from its own demise. It is why throughout history, God had to intervene to protect his people from the extinction that evil would love to impose. And it is why at the end of all time, God will extinguish evil in flames, and will see it slip into non-existence forever more. The second death will be the passing of evil from the universe, and all those who cling to it, refusing to be saved.

It is not God’s intent that we live under the laws designed to constrict sin. It is God’s intent that we live in the perfection of freedom to serve others, love others, and do good for others. In this is true freedom, unbound by any laws. One day, we will return to heaven, where this thinking is the only way of living. One day, our hearts, minds, and bodies will be in perfect sync with the divine. Through our daily submission to Christ, we can begin this journey here and now. And we can begin to see the benefits from it, even in a world filled with pain and agony. For by submitting to Christ, we eliminate the greatest source of our pain – ourselves. It makes no sense to delay this activity for some time in our future lives. It makes more sense to embrace submission immediately and begin to see its value right here and right now. In that event, heaven will be a continuation of what we have learned to do here. And Christ will truly have been allowed to save us from the pain that evil surely brings.