This morning I am reflecting on Paul's letter to the Colossians, and most of the second chapter. Paul is encouraging freedom and grace towards one another. Here are the verses I am looking at - Colossians 2:2-3,6-8,16-17,20-23 NIV:
[2] "My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, [3] in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."
[6] "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, [7] rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. [8] See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ."
[16] "Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. [17] These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ."
[20] "Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: [21] “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? [22] These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. [23] Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence."
My good friend and I were talking about these very things yesterday morning, how we like to keep score, how we like to focus on tasks rather than relationship. I know in the past I have meditated on how we are uncomfortable with allowing people to operate in a relational paradigm concerning their faith, ourselves included. We want rules and lists and tasks so that we can "judge" our progress. We like things that are nice and neat, and lists are that. We think we could enjoy a life of checking off things to do, events to attend, and such. However, the invitation of the Lord is to relationship. Each of us is invited in the same way and each of us should have our own unique expression of relationship with the Lord, as He is the Lord of our lives.
Our temptation is to put together a list of things, a calendar of events, a schedule and a chart and then use that to judge our progress rather than entering into the give and take of relational contexts. Relationships take time, effort and communication! Relationships require participation of both parties, and growth and change. Relationships mature over time and increase in depth of insight and understanding of one another. In our relationship with the Lord, these are all true.
In our relationship with the Lord, as we allow Him to speak into us and call us forward in personal growth so that we can become more like Him, the Lord will bring up things to consider, opportunities for change, and invitations to embrace. For each of us those things will be unique as to where we are in relationship, and unique to our own growth and maturity individually. He might invite me to step away from social media for a while as He speaks into me, others He might encourage to reach out to those in need, still others might be invited to spend more time in prayer. No one thing is better than another, and each is crafted by the Lord to lead us to our next step in growth and maturity in Him.
Continuing that line of thought, there are those that are invited to embrace singleness, others are called to marriage; some invited to embrace to voluntary poverty, others to extravagant giving from their wealth; some are invited to service in full-time ministry, others to ministry in the workplace; some are led to prayer and intercession, others to evangelism and outreaches. Somehow we can slide into thinking we can rank or "judge" the different calls and invitations and think of some as more important, or more favored than others! We want to compare, to "judge", and that is what Paul discourages here.
I have been a part of several ministries that proclaimed the "high" calling, as if their particular ministry or way of life was better than most others. They appealed to our desire to do great things in our fervor and love, and while each was excellent, they were embracing a form of spiritual pride, and that is always dangerous. In this particular letter Paul is addressing some of the "high-callings" of that time, those that wanted to add to the Gospel, those that said there were rules for special days, or fasts, or even ascetic life in the desert and that these were better than other ways of life! He was addressing in particular the false humility of a life of poverty and asceticism with a fasted life-style as an outward humbleness that hides an inner pride of being better than everyone else.
Our goal, each of us, should be to embrace relationship with the Lord as He leads us! We should encourage each other in our individual walks, and give grace to everyone else for the pursuit of the Lord as He uniquely draws them. We should assume that while many might have similar walks, that the Lord is equally Lord of other's lives, as He is of our own. We should allow Him to direct and guide, teach and discipline. We need to realize that He is working in all of our lives, as He promised He would. We need to embrace personal responsibility for our own lives, and learn not to "judge" others.
We would do well to embrace Paul's encouragement from the verses above - Col 2: 6-7 NIV: "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." Let us embrace gratitude for the invitation, for the life of blessings, and for the relationship! He is the reason we are here! He is the reason we have experienced salvation! He is the reason we have seen personal growth! He is the reason we are seen as righteous before the Father! It is His gifts of life and abilities that we enjoy everyday. It is His breath that fills us and moves through us!
So, let us continue to live our lives, rooted and built up in relationship with Him! Let us embrace His grace, and extend this same grace to everyone else! Let us embrace relationship as the only thing that matters, and stop keeping score! Let us entrust our walk and the walk of everyone else to the Lord, for He is the only one who is able to be Lord for everyone equally!
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