This subject has been hitting me left and right. My wife and I are talking about it a lot lately, I am feeling the strain of it in various ways in my leadership sphere, and Mike is even speaking on responding in meekness out of Psalm 31:5 this morning. The subject is how we are to respond in the midst of ‘body life’ when the circumstances are not working in our favor. Now, by body life I mean any expression of community, no matter how large (corporate church body, ministry to ministry, etc.) or small (small groups, marriages, families, etc.).Often times when we work closely with others we come up against this more and more. It is the obvious result of broken and weak people who are trying to hold others in higher regard than themselves. Though, as we grow closer we become more familiar and safe with one another, this also can become one of our greatest hurdles; i.e., that we let our guard down and are more ourselves, fractures and all, in these situations.
Rarely in these situations are the circumstances optimal for our righteous response. It is too easy to blame others for our weakness and our lack. It is the common statement, “If they would only…”, “if he wouldn’t do it that way,” “if she would just…” the list is endless. We come up with so many ways to make ourselves the victim and excuse ourselves from responding in an opposite spirit. By opposite spirit I simply mean the response in righteousness that the Lord would require.
However, it seems clear from the scripture that the theological response to all these varied excuses to make ourselves the victim (thus relieving us from the necessity to walk in humility, peace, blessing, righteousness, etc.) would be “SO WHAT?!”
We are never given the option in the Lord’s eyes to excuse ourselves from responding in meekness and righteousness. When we stand before Him at the judgments seat, and He recounts the deeds we have done in the body, in our time on the earth, we will not be able to blame others for our lack of response in the ways which the Lord requires. We will simply either have to admit that we failed to do so, or that we considered not the circumstance and, in spite of the seemingly permissible response necessitated by the circumstance, responded in righteousness.
This is why Paul tells believers again and again to consider others better than yourselves, or to let love be the guiding ‘force’ in body life. There must be a humility to serve one another, regardless of how deserving the other is. We are required to walk in integrity and uprightness before the Lord in every situation in which we are placed – no excuses!
I hope to write more on this, it is stirring on my heart a little lately – plus I did not even begin to touch on the blessings which may come for those of us who choose to do such a radical and violent thing in the midst of our various communities.
r
