Of course,
there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment.
—1 Timothy 6:6
Introduction: Why
Bother?
Christians are very
often our own worst enemies. I might go so far as to say that the most
effective argument against the practice of Christianity is the way Christianity
is practiced. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then perhaps it might
do to sit back and compare the life of Christ to the lives of most of us
Christians. Christ was kind and understanding, and he knew just when to get
mad. His followers are too seldom kind and too often angry. Christ appears to
have had no home, but went from town to town trusting that God—through other
people—would take care of his needs. We place too little trust in God, and too
much trust in possessions. Christ was courageous, speaking the truth to power,
and refusing—even in the face of certain death—to mislead people about who he
was and what he was about. We are often too afraid to speak up when we could
witness for our faith, or even when we hear a comment that denigrates a sister
or a brother.
These are just a few
of the examples of how we don’t measure up to Christ. And since this has always
been the case with disciples of Christ, you’d think that the movement begun by
Christ would’ve been condemned from the beginning. And if we are tempted to
think that, there’s obviously something we’re forgetting—something that trumps
all the negatives and shortcomings of the people who call ourselves Christian.
And that is forgiveness and grace. In the history of religion—unless there is a
religion somewhere that preaches mediocrity, cowardice, and hypocrisy—there has
never been a group of adherents who live up to the ideals of their religion.
But the Christian faith bases our obedience to Christ’s ideals not on the fact
that we must do them in order to be accepted by God, but that because we are
accepted by God, we respond by being obedient. That’s because ours is a faith
based not on legalism and judgment, but on forgiveness and grace.