The Irony of Christian Life (27th June 2015)

The Irony of Christian Life

God is not mocked: for whatsoever soweth that he shall also reap.

The last Lord's Day evening, I spoke about the Apostle Paul being the Exemplar of a Gospel-Focused Life from Phil. 1:13-26. I meant to say that he is someone whom we ought to emulate or measure ourselves against with respect to the focus of our life here on earth as Christians.

The context of my message was that the Apostle Paul was imprisoned in Rome while writing to the Philippian Church, which he had founded about a decade earlier, not knowing the final outcome of his appeal to Caesar. For someone in such a situation, it is remarkable to note that his only concern in the letter to the Philippian Church was about the progress of the Gospel in Rome arising from both the favorable response to the initial hearing at the Imperial Court of Rome and the actions of some not-so-good fellow preachers' behavior at that time. Besides, he also expressed in no uncertain terms the assistance that he would have from the Spirit of God while being subject to the Imperial Trial process as well as his absolute desire about magnifying Christ no matter what the outcome of the trial was, both in life and in death. The latter objective expression is augmented in the famous heartfelt expression of Paul in Phil. 1:21, namely, "For me to live is Christ to die is gain". This verse encapsulates the meaning that all the bodily life activities of the Apostle Paul "is Christ". If it is so, then it only means one thing, namely, "he is the slave of Christ who has no will of his own, that Christ alone moves his body and all its members according to his will" [Lenski]. Given that death is not antithesis to living as the long line of living will ultimately end with dying, so we can see that only a life that is given to Christ, to live after his will, will result in gain when death arrives. Here, in the life of the Apostle Paul, we have an almost perfect expression of a person's response to Jesus's injunction for those who would follow him in the way of (1) self-denial (repudiation of self-will), (2) willingness to die for the gospel and (3) perseverance in following him which then resulted in (4) finding real life (Matt. 16:24-25).

The import of my message was that those who have heeded Jesus's injunction to all who would be his disciples (Matthew 16:24-25) would exhibit a life that is focused on bringing the gospel to those around him as exemplified by the life of Apostle Paul. This is in fact echoed by Jesus's exhortation to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and the Great Commission. It must be said that because not all of us are called to be Minister of the Gospel, our life when compared to that of Apostle Paul would differ in terms of intensity and magnitude with respect to Gospel work but would have the same focus in life, nonetheless.

The irony is that we don't see this expression of Gospel focus in the life of the rank and file of church-going people in general. It is said that the most we can expect from most church-going people is that they would be present during Sunday worship, with some limited involvement in Church work and no more. The irony would be further compounded in the Reformed Context where we have clear expressions of the Goal of a Christian’s life in both the Heidelberg Catechism and Westminster Shorter Catechism taught to us when we were young and constantly referred to from the Pulpit.

What is the cause of the Irony? Perhaps it is because you and I don't readily repudiate ourselves from the throne of our life; although we profess to be followers of Christ, we just do what we like to do. You neither have the desire nor the concern to follow Jesus's injunction. It could be that you don't understand or that you are spiritually immature because there isn't sufficient instruction in Church that can bring you to spiritual maturity; the Pulpit Ministry while important is not enough. Or perhaps you are weighted down by life itself; you have not exerted yourself for the Gospel. Besides, you have encumbered yourself with too many demands, though legitimate, which have derailed your Christian focus on the Gospel.

What are you going to do about this Irony, if you found it expressed in your very life?

One can be sure that living a Christian life requires a lot of effort but we are promised Grace to live it out. This can be seen in the Apostle Paul's warning in Galatians 6:7, namely, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." My fear is that though we may not reap "corruption" as opposed to everlasting life, many of us would be sorely ashamed when we appear before the judgement seat of Christ and not receive the commendation that we are Christ's faithful servant as we have spent much of our life on frivolous pursuits that do not concern the Gospel of our dear Saviour.

Given that six months have passed for 2015, perhaps it is a time for us to reflect on our Christian Walk so that our life would have pincer-sharp focus on the propagation of the Gospel around our individual life and that of our beloved Church, FERC and divest anything that is inimical to this focus. Amen.