What to Expect from the Christian Life
If you were going to design a brochure about the Christian life and send it out to the non-Christian world, what would you put in it? Something about God’s love? How about forgiveness and salvation? Maybe a word about heaven? What about these basics?
* If you want to be somebody, you gotta be a nobody.
* When you arrive on the scene, take the cheap seats and let someone else have the front row.
* If you want to follow Jesus, you’re going to have to learn submission.
* If you want to be a part of God’s Kingdom, you need to consider others more important than yourself.
This was a major part of Jesus’ message. He preached it to the crowds. He taught it to His disciples. He demonstrated it in His own life. And it stuck as a qualifying characteristic for those who would call themselves Christians. The biblical writers who came after Jesus could have downplayed this radical idea for the sake of attracting more people to the faith, but they didn’t. They continued to promote the basic message –
“If you want to get ahead in this world, don’t align yourself with Jesus.”
If you think that sounds off, consider Paul’s instruction to the Christians in Rome: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” Or James: “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
Maybe this is why the world looks so strange to Christians. Maybe this is why Christians look so strange to the world. The fact is there are two completely different sets of rules at work here. Jesus says, “Deny yourself, take the last place and put others first.” The world says, “Insist upon your rights, look out for yourself and get what you can.”
If we could only wrap our heads around this difficult idea, maybe we wouldn’t be so shocked when non-Christians don’t behave like Christians. Maybe we wouldn’t be so surprised when the world thinks we’re nuts.
