July 23, Avoiding conveniece and preference
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
Matthew 22:37
Convenience! Preference! These man-made benefits have conditioned our lifestyles:
Convenience: "Order online in three easy steps. . . will send straight to your door." (As I drive through my neighborhood, I have noticed that where front doors use to be adorned with welcome mats and flower arrangements there are now stacks of amazon boxes.)
Preference: "I'll take a Double Ristretto Venti Half-Soy Nonfat Decaf Organic Chocolate Brownie Vanilla Gingerbread Frappuccino With Foam Whipped Cream Upside Down Double Blended." (They say one of the longest and most obnoxious Starbucks' orders there is, in stark contrast to my standing and very boring order, "medium dark roast coffee, please.")
Nonetheless, the above examples prove that our present society has flourished in the marketing scheme of convenience and preference. And most of us, when acting as consumers, regularly benefit from both.
Nonetheless, we should not relish in these benefits too quickly. A danger develops when we allow convenience and preference to condition our way of thinking. Such benefits may be a blessing when ordering Starbucks or your latest find on Amazon, but they should not condition our total way of life. And, most certainly they should not condition our approach to commitments of faith. Sadly, however, it does happen.
How convenience-driven have we become as a culture? How often does one approach the life of faith with the motivation of convenience and preference? We do have so many options and choices these days, and sometimes our participation in church can be exercised with the click of a link. Some conveniences may be necessary blessings, and I do not bemoan the convenience itself, but rather the impact it may have upon our approach to faith.
John Wesley once wrote,
“I want the whole Christ for my Savior, the whole Bible for my book, the whole church for my fellowship, and the whole world for my mission field.”
Not convenience. Not preference. But all in.
We cannot acknowledge Jesus as Lord only as it is convenient with our other commitments and priorities. We cannot give preference to certain parts of the Bible but ignore other parts that confront errors in our own lives we do not desire to face. We cannot pick and choose who we like within the Body of Christ, and we certainly cannot approach the vast need for Jesus in our world selectively, as if the missional mandate of the Gospel shows preferences to people groups and geographical locations. We cannot!
We must, in Wesley’s words, passionately desire all of Jesus as Lord over all our lives. We must receive both the blessings and the confrontations from the whole truth of God’s Word. We must desire fellowship with the whole church, and not just our small circle of well-acquainted friends. And we most certainly must be burdened for all people groups around the globe who need to hear about Jesus. I consider this the “all or nothing” metric of our Christian commitment. We either must reconcile our lives to all that Jesus represents, or not at all. For, if I pick and choose how I am going to follow Jesus based on my own preferences I make any other attempt at commitment a farce.
Jesus has held us accountable to an “all in” approach to our Christian walk with the foundational standard of the greatest commandment: love the Lord your God will all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27). And, second to this is, “love your neighbor as yourself.”
Scarcely would anyone admit to perfectly demonstrating the first and second “greatest commandments”, for we all know that at times we fall woefully short. But the emphasis calls for everyone to place all their passion, priorities, and purposes in Jesus - to love Him over all things, thus mirroring His love to others.
So today, consider how easily one can fall into the dangerous trap of a piecemeal approach to Christian commitment (influenced by convenience and preference). And resolve to approach faith in Jesus “with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength." In doing so, the name of Jesus is exalted in the home, the church, the community, and the world.
Blessings.
READ.
Read Luke 10:25-37 for a Biblical picture of how to live "all in."
