I like nice things. I like them a lot. I like to smell the inside of a new car. I like to feel a new basketball in my hands. I like the smell of a can of new tennis balls being opened (hey, don't judge me). I like new movies. I like change. But do you know what I like more? Stability. I like the (not so) new shoes I bought five years ago because they're my favorite. I like the (not so) new basketball I bought three years earlier because it's feel is familiar to me. I like things to stay the way they were when they were new and my favorite. I don't like other people's new quite as much. In fact, I don't know many people who do. It's an odd thing, comfort.
Boss Spearman, a character from one of my favorite movies, addresses our tendency to avoid change and to avoid risk with a simple statement to a local shop owner concerning dark chocolate just before the film's climax.
I have spent most of my life thinking this way. I think most of us have. There are minor areas where we consider ourselves to be welcomers of change, I'm sure. But overall, we're creatures of habit. This is not a new concept.
The Apostle Paul commented on his heritage prior to meeting the resurrected Jesus (and his new inheritance since) in his second* letter to the church at Corinth.
The church at Corinth had the same issue. Further, and worse, they were confident in their position as being correct. I believe most of us are as well -- convinced we are right, that is. Paul is speaking to the reliance on the Law -- the same Law he had trusted in while persecuting followers of Jesus before his encounter on the road to Damascus. These stones, with the 'ministry of death' chiseled on them, were the very stones believers in this church plant were using to figuratively bash non-believers -- and each other -- into submission. To be sure, there was glory in the Law; Paul points that out succinctly for us. But just as John the Baptist brought glory to God, Christ, after him, brought even more glory causing John the Baptist's glory to fade in comparison (I must decrease, He must increase).
John the Baptist brought hard messages that condemned and demanded repentance. Jesus, full of grace and truth, forgave. His harshest words were for the religious leaders. He didn't start 'going off' on them until late in His ministry. This should come as no surprise to anyone who has read anything from the Law or the Prophets. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, especially, have devastating words to the negligent religious leaders. It seemed religious leaders hadn't changed in centuries -- Jesus only spoke what He heard the Father say, after all. Which brings me back to Paul and his letter to the church at Corinth. Paul was in close relationship with the Father through the Holy Spirit. He recognized the err of his zeal for the Law, and recognized that same type of err in others as well. He called it the 'ministry of death' and rightly so (see Romans 7&8). But verse 9 in the third chapter of 2 Cor. is the verse that jumped off the page at me today. "For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness overflows with even more glory."
Paul reminds us that Moses' face literally glowed with glory after receiving the stone tablets, and that the glory faded. As he wrote in a previous letter to the same church, "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law." (The power of sin is the Law?!) The glory of the Law fades, it is only effective in showing us what we aren't capable of achieving. The glory of Jesus Christ's righteousness endures forever because He achieved what none of us can. We, as the Body of Christ, have regressed. We have moved from the ministry of righteousness that He practiced, back into the ministry of death. If Jesus didn't practice the law of condemnation, why do we think we have the right to practice it? We are His Body, aren't we? I believe it's the height of arrogance to practice something as Christ's Body that He didn't practice Himself!
So what's it going to be? Both ministries have glory. This is the one area I can't afford to stay comfortable in; it's time to start practicing the ministry of righteousness in my own life. It's time to forego the ministry of condemnation. Do I want to keep giving power to sin? Or do I want to start giving power to eternal life? It's an obvious answer and with the help of the Holy Spirit, I believe I can become more effective at practicing the right and good ministry. And, as always is the case with Jesus, there's good news! As Paul concludes,
"Sittin' right in front of you and you never even tried it ... shame to go forever without taking a taste of something."He's right.
I have spent most of my life thinking this way. I think most of us have. There are minor areas where we consider ourselves to be welcomers of change, I'm sure. But overall, we're creatures of habit. This is not a new concept.
The Apostle Paul commented on his heritage prior to meeting the resurrected Jesus (and his new inheritance since) in his second* letter to the church at Corinth.
"Now if the ministry of death, chiseled in letters on stones, came with glory, so that the Israelites were not able to look directly at Moses’ face because of the glory from his face—a fading glory—how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness overflows with even more glory. In fact, what had been glorious is not glorious now by comparison because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was fading away was glorious, what endures will be even more glorious." - 2 Cor. 3:7-11The reality of this in my own heart is troublesome to me. I consider myself to be someone with a moderately open mind (depending on who you ask) and a willingness to hear the other side of the story. But I've noticed a pattern regardless of the level of one's progressiveness: once we find our comfort zone, we tend to stay there.
The church at Corinth had the same issue. Further, and worse, they were confident in their position as being correct. I believe most of us are as well -- convinced we are right, that is. Paul is speaking to the reliance on the Law -- the same Law he had trusted in while persecuting followers of Jesus before his encounter on the road to Damascus. These stones, with the 'ministry of death' chiseled on them, were the very stones believers in this church plant were using to figuratively bash non-believers -- and each other -- into submission. To be sure, there was glory in the Law; Paul points that out succinctly for us. But just as John the Baptist brought glory to God, Christ, after him, brought even more glory causing John the Baptist's glory to fade in comparison (I must decrease, He must increase).
John the Baptist brought hard messages that condemned and demanded repentance. Jesus, full of grace and truth, forgave. His harshest words were for the religious leaders. He didn't start 'going off' on them until late in His ministry. This should come as no surprise to anyone who has read anything from the Law or the Prophets. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, especially, have devastating words to the negligent religious leaders. It seemed religious leaders hadn't changed in centuries -- Jesus only spoke what He heard the Father say, after all. Which brings me back to Paul and his letter to the church at Corinth. Paul was in close relationship with the Father through the Holy Spirit. He recognized the err of his zeal for the Law, and recognized that same type of err in others as well. He called it the 'ministry of death' and rightly so (see Romans 7&8). But verse 9 in the third chapter of 2 Cor. is the verse that jumped off the page at me today. "For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness overflows with even more glory."
Paul reminds us that Moses' face literally glowed with glory after receiving the stone tablets, and that the glory faded. As he wrote in a previous letter to the same church, "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law." (The power of sin is the Law?!) The glory of the Law fades, it is only effective in showing us what we aren't capable of achieving. The glory of Jesus Christ's righteousness endures forever because He achieved what none of us can. We, as the Body of Christ, have regressed. We have moved from the ministry of righteousness that He practiced, back into the ministry of death. If Jesus didn't practice the law of condemnation, why do we think we have the right to practice it? We are His Body, aren't we? I believe it's the height of arrogance to practice something as Christ's Body that He didn't practice Himself!
So what's it going to be? Both ministries have glory. This is the one area I can't afford to stay comfortable in; it's time to start practicing the ministry of righteousness in my own life. It's time to forego the ministry of condemnation. Do I want to keep giving power to sin? Or do I want to start giving power to eternal life? It's an obvious answer and with the help of the Holy Spirit, I believe I can become more effective at practicing the right and good ministry. And, as always is the case with Jesus, there's good news! As Paul concludes,
"We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit." - 2 Cor. 3:18
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