Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
Summary: What kind of gift should we give our Creator this Christmas? John gives us a clue.
Merry Christmas to one and all!
Today is the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. The name “Jesus” means “Jehovah (God) is salvation” or “God saves.” “Christ” is a word that means “anointed.” To be anointed is a way of signifying that God has chosen a person for a specific role. “Jesus Christ” means that God chose Jesus to be our salvation.
That is like saying someone has been chosen to stand in for your scheduled execution by firing squad.
Only worse.
It has taken me decades to begin to understand why God sent Jesus to us and what it really means. Even now, I struggle to put God’s gift to us into words.
A man who died about two months before I was born, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, is credited with putting it this way:
“We are not physical beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a physical experience.”
I couldn’t agree more.
God sees us both in our physical form and our spiritual form. He knows the physical is temporary, and the spiritual is forever.
It is sort of like a parent looking at a child on Christmas morning. Whether the child is happy or sad, the parent knows that this Christmas morning is only one of many. To the child, it seems like Christmas Day is the only day that matters.
God knows this life seems like the most important life ever. But it’s not. We have another more important life, and it lasts forever. God wants us to spend that eternal life with him. The alternative is like spending Christmas away from family and friends, alone, in the Arctic, in the cold, with no food, no blanket, and no hope.
Those of us who believe in Jesus have hope. Lots of it. Enough to share with others on Christmas and every other day of the year.
In today’s passage, John tells us that we who believe in Jesus need to live as Jesus did. What does that mean exactly?
In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he describes Jesus this way:
“And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:8)
The words “humble” and “obedient” describe Jesus very well. They also should describe those of us who claim to follow Jesus.
If you would like to give Jesus a birthday gift this Christmas, I suggest being humble and obedient would be a great gift.
Application: Honor our King by being like him in humility and obedience.
Food for Thought: What does it mean to be obedient as a Christian today?
What does it mean to be obedient as a Christian today?
I’ve seen it multiple times this month somewhere about “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:37-40.
The loving your neighbor is the one that is difficult for some including me. I still need to pray for those whom are lost or against what is righteous and good. To remember those prayers of those who are recognized in the bible praying for forgiveness of those people wanting to do evil because they know not what they are doing in Gods eyes.
Tim,
Thank you for sharing your frustration with neighbors. It is not an uncommon frustration and you are not alone in this difficulty.
I was in the grocery store two days ago and ran into a nephew of mine that I don’t see very often. He is an interesting young man who has had some amazing adventures in life. Part of our conversation wandered into his interest in Tai Chi.
As he described it to me, a principle of Tai Chi is to ‘go with the flow.’ He had me push on his shoulder and he demonstrated the difference between our normal reaction to resist pressure (push back) and the Tai Chi method of giving way to the pressure and turning to deflect the push. It lets the pusher push without causing harm to the one being pushed.
I was reminded of Matthew 5:39: “But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”
God tells us not to resist an evil person. This does not mean that we don’t oppose evil. It means something to the effect that we don’t fall into the trap of engaging them on their turf.
To bring this back to your comment about neighbors, when our neighbor tries to pick a fight, there is a form of biblical Tai Chi that Jesus wants us to use in response. Like physical Tai Chi, it takes time to learn how, but each step we take that brings us closer to our Lord increases our skill and power against evil.
T – you are a great example of loving and serving others. Love you brother. Merry Christmas to you and A
Thank you. Those examples are times when I’m being a good reflection. It’s nice when people see the reflection of Christ in someone else. They give praise of how good that action was because it glorified the character of Jesus and the glory does go to God………. it’s still hard for me to accept a compliment…… thank you. I enjoy serving the Lord.
12-25-2022, What does it mean to be obedient as a Christian today?
Matthew 7:16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thorn-bushes, or figs from thistles?
We are known by our fruits, our actions show our heart. The heart filled with the Spirit will produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness. Those having the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, are easily seen by these outward manifestations of an inner truth.
Thank you, Ron.
So obedience is a combination of obeying God’s Word and his Spirit.
Nice point!
Interesting question,..
The other day I was at the grocery store, the checker said, Happy Holiday’s, I returned with Merry Christmas. She mentioned she liked that one better. Then she went on to say that she is not allowed to say Merry Christmas because it may cause the person to feel offended. I went on to tell her that America has been saying Merry Christmas for years, I told her that I am an American and if saying Merry Christmas offends someone then they can be defended in the same pants they are offended in. She smiled as I left, not sure if that has any thing to do with obedience, but as a country we sure have gotten away from saying Merry Christmas.
Last night I took my wife out to Denny’s for dinner, I noticed an older couple walk in and sit down. The man had a pin of a cross on his coat lapel. I told my wife I bet they know Jesus. Then later just before we are getting ready to leave, something in my head told me to pay for their meal. So I went up to the couple as we were leaving and told the man that I liked his pin on his coat. He said that they are born again Christians, the conversation was short, but I followed through and paid for their meal. They had no idea that I had paid for their meal. Could that land in the obedience department?
Again thanks for the meditation and the question to boot
Have a Merry Christmas
John,
Good for you! The old trope about about people being offended is long overdue for the garbage can. People can be offended about anything. Murderers are offended when they are caught. Just because someone is offended is not a determination of who is right and wrong.
Thank you Jeff for another great devotion. I had heard that quote before and really like it, but did not know the source.
My simple (not easy) approach to what it means to be obedient is to obey everything Jesus tells me to do when He tells me to do it. He is Lord and He gets to call the shots (Luke 6: 46). The problem is that I often fail because of my sin nature and selfishness (Jeremiah 17: 9 comes to mind – but the Holy Spirit can soften the regenerate heart). As T reminded us, I know He asks me to love Him with all of who I am and to love my neighbor as myself. He showed me what that looks like. So simple. So hard.
He deserves the best because He is the best.
Merry Christmas to all.
Rich,
“So simple. So hard.”
Amen! (A whole sermon in four words!)
Thank you!!
“So simple so hard” just forgive. Why is it so hard for us to forgive? All Jesus has done for us, all our sins. Yet He still forgives us and taken the punishment for us out of love. How come it is so hard for us to just forgive others when He has forgiven us for so much more. “So simple so hard” love and forgive.
Amen
Tim,
Why is it hard to forgive?
One thought that comes to mind is that we tend to judge from a human perspective instead of looking at life through God’s eyes.
As a human, without God, we are slow to forgive because we want justice. Where there is no justice, no consequence for offense given, there is no basis for forgiveness.
From God’s perspective, we are all sinners. We all miss the mark of loving God above all else and our neighbor as ourselves. Where we see big sins and little sins, God sees everybody sinning. Nobody makes the grade.
Yet God forgives. Through Jesus he pays the penalty for our sin. Jesus took the bullet for us. We live because he died. Because we live, we can know we are forgiven and because we are forgiven …
That makes it possible to forgive. But, it is only possible in light of God’s forgiveness of us; you and me.
The easy part is accepting forgiveness. The hard part, as you point out, is forgiving others. But at least we have a reason to try. 🙂
What does it mean to be obedient as a Christian today?
The same thing it’s always meant. Obey God, obey Christ, don’t let the world stop you from it.
So often we think we need specialized instructions because some years have past. I see it in sewing when someone says “but we need to alter it to fit a modern body” (that is a pet peave of mine). I see it in schools like for some reason math, which hasn’t changed suddenly needs to be done differently because we’re in a modern world. I see it in cooking, like we have to make up a new method of it just because x number of years have passed, and the tried and true method is too boring? And I see it in our approach to God.
God is still king, God is still in charge, in fact God’s commandments haven’t really changed in millennia. The only thing that’s changed is us. We don’t respect authority, we don’t submit to those wiser than us, we pushed the past aside so much that we can’t remember it straight anymore. Revisionism exists because we let ourselves forget.
Obedience is still the fruit of the Spirit.
Obedience is still telling others the gospel. (One Way, One Truth, One Faith, One God)
Obedience is still letting the Holy Spirit have a say in your life.
Obedience is still taking sin out your thoughts and actions, even if it’s one tedious speck of dust at a time.
Obedience is still love.
👍
Thank you, Angela!
“Don’t let the world stop you…”
Great point! We have to break free of the pull of being part of the group. Another thing that is not easy.