Scripture: Ephesians 5:1-7, John13:12-17
One of the world’s favorite “truisms” - is “Be true
to yourself”! In other words, don’t be influenced by anyone or anything,
except for the things that the speaker wants us to identify with! Unfortunately, this motto is anything BUT a
benefit for our life! In it, faith
becomes a contradiction, trust in “absolute truth” becomes an unknown quantity,
and personal growth will never take us anywhere except into stagnation.
The point is that there is only one Truth, and that
is the one and consistent truth that resides in the Lord our God. And how do we discover and apply this truth
to our lives? It certainly isn’t through
our own wisdom, that’s for sure! It is
always available to us through study of the scriptures, and in certainty of its
truth, through affirmation by the Holy Spirit.
The problem with the world’s version of “truth”, is
that it varies through the determination of society and culture and national
interests. And if we try to discern
truth by watching and learning solely from what other people teach, we will
almost never arrive at a Godly way for our life. If the word of God is never given first
place in our search for truth, we will only find failure in our efforts. The truth of God and the example of Jesus is
our only hope.
Read Ephesians 5:1-7
In Ephesians 4:19-24,
we read that when we give our lives over to the truth that comes to us through
faith in Jesus Christ, the life that we lived formerly will no longer have any meaning
for us. In Christ, we become an entirely
new person who has been remade in the "image" of Jesus.
The lists of evil ways that
we read about in our passage for today must be removed from our life and
replaced by the ways of righteousness, thanksgiving and obedience to the
example of Jesus. And why should this be
so important for our lives? When we
accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, we return to the intent that God
expressed for our lives at creation. In Genesis1:26-30, the Lord tells us that humanity was made in the “image” of
God.
Why? God’s image within us will be how God will
see and treat us. It will be as if He is
looking into a mirror, and sees His own reflection. We will be one in and with Him, even though
we are not God ourselves. The
writer of Genesis would have us know that when we reflect the image of God, the
Lord will trust us with authority over all of the rest of creation, and unless
we are akin to Him and His ways, the wisdom that would guide us in our
administration and guidance for everything else will be flawed. And what is it that causes such a cruel and
destructive imperfection in us? It was
and is Satan’s deceptive and arrogant attitude toward God! Our own sin has broken the relationship that
we could be enjoying with our creator, just as Adam once had, but forfeited.
So what is there about the
ruse that ruined the man and woman’s life with God? When they were tricked into eating from the
Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, they became like God, in that they had an awareness of both
the goodness, as well as the evil that was surrounding them. Previously, they only knew the goodness of
God, and this was the only way that they knew. There was no temptation to try a different
way of living, and the only thing that was missing now was an understanding of
what those divergent ways would bring upon human lives! Satan had assured them that by eating the
forbidden fruit, that they would obtain a likeness to God instead of simply
reflecting His image. It was obviously a
lie, but they believed it just the same.
And this has become the
greatest obstacle to righteous living that humanity has ever encountered. The worldly now believe that they have the
right to live in any way that they desire, and that no one, including God, has
the right to tell them otherwise! The
Lord’s command in Genesis 2:16-17 is this - “16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat
from any tree in the garden; 17 but
you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when
you eat from it you will certainly die.” And now we also know the consequences of
denying God’s word – that judgment will, without Christ’s blessing of
forgiveness, be the eternal darkness of death, and eternal life and light will
no longer be within us. And no matter
how certain we may be that our choices will never produce results so definitive
in nature, God’s way, not ours, will always be the deciding factor.
Hear the closing verses
from our Ephesians passage once again – “6Let no one deceive you
with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are
disobedient. 7Therefore do
not be partners with them.”
And who should
we be “partners” with? It should be with
the very best One of all – Jesus Christ!
Read John 13:12-17
In
this passage, Jesus sets His nature of Lord and God aside, and offers us the
example of Servant and Teacher. The
point that He is making for His followers is that His true Being is something
that no one else can ever attain to, but the example that He presents here is
the one thing that everyone who follows Him should always strive to gain in their
own lives – and the order that we should claim is not one of being a Teacher
first, and from there to become an example of servant! It must always be the other way around!
If
we don’t submit to a Christ-like servanthood first, how will we ever be able to
teach others about the way of Jesus?
Without a heart that is focused on being a Christ-like servant, how can
we ever become a Christ-centered teacher of His ways? We’ve all heard the old saying “Practice what
you preach!” The truth is that we
generally do it the other way around - we
tend to “Preach what we practice!”, for that’s what we are most familiar with,
and the way that we live is what we would want others to see as our
example for their lives!
Wouldn’t
it seem as though we should learn and accept the ways of Jesus before we ever set
out to teach others to live as Jesus did?
A few verses beyond this passage are the words in John13:34-35 –
“34 A new command I give you: Love one
another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you
love one another.” If
our greatest desire is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, we had better be
acting like the one whom we are following!
And living as Jesus has taught us is the best evidence that we can ever
show to the world, as they will never believe what we offer to them unless they
see it within our own life.
When Jesus called us to go and wash each other’s
feet, He was actually calling us to be the best servant that we can possibly
be. But maybe the question should be –
why should our Lord Jesus ever have to be a servant for the likes of us? After all, wasn’t that Peter’s objection to
his Lord’s washing of his feet (John 13:5-11)? He felt that his Lord should never
stoop to serve him! But would Peter have
ever turned out to be the kind of evangelist that God needed him to be, if he
had never seen what his life could become through the example of his divine
Teacher?
Jesus never made the conditions of being His
disciple optional – it had to be His way, or not at all. Are we prepared to follow in the way of Jesus,
and tell Him “Lord, wash me as you will, and make me worthy to wash others in
the same way.”
The way that He has shown us is the only way we
will ever be able to live in Him.
