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Yesterday we talked about keeping certain thoughts between you and God as you talk with others in the Church as well as those outside the Church. I indicated that God wants us to do so, so that we are better living out a life like He does. God is a relational God. All He does revolves around relationship. Doesn't it make sense that we, His children, should be relational as well. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Today, I want to continue our discussion surrounding the Roman's verses my friend woke up early one morning this week to read. As you might remember from our discussion yesterday, the following verses had my friend puzzled. Let's read these verses again and take a look at a different aspect of keeping our thoughts to ourselves that really has victor living written all over it.
So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin. Romans 14:22-23 (NIV)
How did I come up with this kind of thought process? Check out what the second sentence in our reading says today. "Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves." This is a pretty confusing sentence when you look at it on the surface. Combining blessing and condemnation is a mix of words that really makes my brain have to do back flips to try and figure out what is going on in Paul's head.
The beginning of the third sentence really opened my eyes to what Paul was getting across. It says, "But whoever has doubts is condemned..." Blessing is lost when our thoughts about how we are to relate to this God of ours doesn't seem to work in the ways they use to or in the ways we thought they would any longer. When our religious actions don't work any longer to make us feel closer to this God, condemnation comes in in ways that I believe highlight the kinds of victim thinking that I talk about in these presentations.
Let's go back to the subject from Romans 14. If you remember from yesterday, Paul was writing on the issue of whether it was right to eat meat sacrificed to idols. For one camp, they believed that eating meat sacrificed to idols was OK. In other words, they believed their eating of this meat had nothing to do with whether they were loved by this God or not. The other camp thought the opposite. They thought that by keeping idol worship out of their daily meals was a way to get closer to this God of theirs.
When you read Chapter 14 you will see that Paul doesn't argue for who is right and who is wrong. Why? Because, when it comes to both strategies, they have nothing to do with getting closer to God or not. Paul basically says, eat meat or don't eat meat. Getting more of God's love has nothing to do with anything we do. His love for us is there whether we subscribe to this religious tenet or to that one.
Notice also, that Paul doesn't say do or don't eat meat. In fact, He doesn't even say do or don't eat meat thinking it will draw you closer to God. He says, whatever you think about what it takes to draw closer to God, keep between you and God. Paul knew from experience that even wrong ideas about God might work for a while as a strategy to bring you closer to Him. He also knew that eventually God would make it so that your thinking would need to change. That happens as the doubts arise that bring condemnation in one's life.
To help make this point a little more relevant to current times, let's take a look at the issue of reading our Bible in light of what Paul is teaching. There was a time in my life when I spent hours upon hours of reading the Bible hoping to get closer to God. I was told that was the only way to get to know this God of ours.
Low and behold that strategy really worked! For years, I found relationship with God through gaining more and more knowledge about Him. Eventually, the feeling of being drawn closer got harder and harder to experience. I tried reading my Bible even more to no avail. I just wasn't feeling that closeness to God that I felt when I first started diving into The Word.
That's when the doubts came flooding in. Condemnation came as I thought I must not be good enough, and never would be good enough, to get close to this God that I wanted to know so much more. That's the process Paul is explaining so clearly in the reading my friend shared with me recently.
You see it isn't wrong that I spent so much time in my Bible drawing closer to God. It was that I made drawing closer to God a formula. That formula went something like this; "The more I learn, the better I will be seen in God's eyes and the more attention, and ultimately love I will receive from Him." Relationship can never be real when formulas are all we have to make relationship possible.
What Paul is saying is that whatever we need to make God more and more real in our lives is good for the moment. He is also saying that eventually, that way or relating will fail us in ways that will bring in doubts. It isn't that God doesn't love us that the doubts come. It is that we are trying to get to that love in ways that just aren't necessary. When the doubts and condemnation come, it is time to get closer and closer to the truth. God loves us whether we read our Bibles daily or not. No religious tenet will ever bring us closer to Him. He doesn't need us to do, He wants us to be!
Being is what gives you the best opportunity to the victor's life God has given you. If you feel you need to do to make that happen - do all you want until your doing doesn't work for you any more. Sooner or later you, just like Paul, will see that doing is a failed strategy when it comes to relating to this God that loves. us. Live this day in the knowledge that you are God's Child no matter what you put your hands to today. That's the place where doubts and condemnation just can reside. That's the place of freedom God wants for your life today.
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