Humility and serving others

Yesterday I struggled with what God had shown me, knowing He is right about my pride and my tendency to rely on some people more than I should. Jesus does not think that way, and because He lives in me and has given me His mind, I’m not to think that way either.

However, knowing what to do is far easier than actually doing it. How does anyone change their habits? The Bible says changing them is like a leopard trying to change its spots. Apart from the grace of God, I’m stuck . . . yet one definition of grace is “seeing Jesus and being changed” by what I see. So today, God gives me another look at Jesus.

This view is the familiar narrative describing how He washed the feet of His disciples. As I read it, I can see more of how His mind works (and more of how my thinking fails to measure up). The passage is John 13:1–17.

First, Jesus knew it was nearly time for his death. He knew where He was going and knew the people God had entrusted to His care. And He loved them. I don’t know when I will die (and likely don’t need to, at least not yet), but I do know where I am going. I also have some idea of those God has entrusted to me, and I do love them, but not as much as Jesus loves them.

Second, Jesus knew that He had been given all things. He also knew He had come from God and was going back to God. God tells me I have all I need, but I seldom act like it. I’m always feeling needy, or often wanting something I don’t have. I know where I came from and know I am going back to God, but deep is my knowledge? For Jesus, His understanding led Him to do the task of a servant as a gesture of His love and as an example to His disciples of how to care for each other. I have greater freedom to serve others than this time last year, yet still am often very uncertain. I worry about acceptance and about “doing it right” and about the value of doing it at all.

Third, Jesus also knew how to answer those who misunderstood what He was doing, such as Peter who didn’t want Jesus to serve him. When Peter did understand, he asked for more than was needed. Jesus was not put on the spot by Peter’s brash ignorance. He knew how to set him straight without being offensive. That happens to me all the time; the misunderstanding part, not the part about knowing how to respond. I’m more like Peter. I want Jesus to be glorified and treated as the King of Glory, but don’t quite know how to act if I’m treated worse or better than I deserve.

Fourth, theologians disagree about the significance and practice of foot-washing, even if they agree that serving others is important. I also know this is true, but how? What is the best way to cheer a discouraged Christian? Or feed a homeless beggar? Or help a person in prison? Or do anything for others? For some, this seems easy, even natural. For me, I wonder if I think too much. If a child spills his popcorn, getting him another bowl is easy. If my mother’s shoes pinch her feet, buying her another pair seems straightforward. But what do I do when a mentally ill person asks a deep theological question, or a child is crying because his grandmother was killed in a drive-by shooting? When it comes down to it, washing feet seems much easier and Jesus did wash their feet.

If foot washing is an example of having a servant heart, and of thinking with the mind of God, it could then be any number of kind and thoughtful actions. For some, this is simple. For me, I have too many ideas and solutions that become complicated.

Maybe I think too much, or maybe the problem goes back to pride . . .  because at the end, after Jesus told them He had given them an example and that they should do just as He had done, He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”

Grace = seeing Jesus as He is

The Lord is my shepherd . . .  (Psalm 23:1)

“You will never rise higher in our Christian life and experience than your image and concept of God.”

I don’t know who said it, but it is true. Because we are made in His image, we can only reflect that which we see of Him. For example, if deep in our hearts we see God as loving and kind, then our lives will reflect that . . .

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:7–8)

David’s primary view of God was of a Shepherd. He saw himself as a sheep. He and other psalmists praised Him expressing that understanding . . .  

Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. (Psalm 100:3–5)

However, today’s devotional reading says that we can say these words all day, but still have a negative picture of God in our hearts. Such a view is rarely changed overnight and it cannot be changed by self-effort.

A change of heart requires grace. Some define grace as “God’s undeserved favor” which is true, but too general for me. I want to know exactly how it works. For that reason, I love this old definition; “Grace is being given an understanding of Jesus Christ that changes your life.”

Seeing Him was life-changing for the disciples. This episode from Simon Peter’s first shows his deep image of Jesus and then how further revelation (grace) changed him . . .

Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, (Jesus) asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” (Luke 5:3–8)

Peter thought he knew more about fishing than this Carpenter did, but out of respect for Jesus, he did as He asked. Then result revealed that this primary view of the Lord was off the mark. Jesus not only knew where to fish, but that they would succeed. At that point, Peter realized Jesus was far more than he first thought. Seeing Jesus as He is (= grace) revealed to Peter something about himself also, something that needed confessing. He could not even begin to reflect the image of God until he was moved to deal with his sin.

The first time God revealed Jesus as He is to me drastically changed my life — for at that moment, I was reborn and became a Christian. Ever since that day, seeking His face and looking for Him is the preoccupation of my life. Yesterday, God went into a deep place in my heart and revealed that my primary view of Him was contrary to what He says about Himself and not at all what I thought I believed. Now I can see how this primary image of God has affected my life for many years.

I do feel lighter and stronger because He has exposed it and I have confessed it. Surely change only happens by seeing Jesus, and seeing Jesus is grace, amazing grace.

Growing in grace . . .

Today’s devotional reading was sincerely intended, but way off-base. For that reason, I opened another one and it blessed my heart with almost the opposite idea about the Christian life. The first one used this verse . . .

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Peter 3:18)

I understand this growth to mean that I am to become more and more like Jesus and the means of that growth to maturity is the grace of God and a deepening relationship with Jesus Christ. That is, I cannot make myself grow. God does it through His Son, and because God does it, He gets the glory.

However, the devotional writer said that this text implies that grace in its beginning “is imperfect and that its progress to maturity is gradual, for if it were perfect there could be no room for growth.” What nonsense. I might display the grace of God in my life, but His grace is not like a feeble infant. Any immaturity displayed is my failure to live by grace, my stubborn determination to “do it myself.” Again, grace isn’t what needs to grow. It is me.

The rest of the article tells me how to make grace grow and ends with, “A Christian who makes no advancement is going backward. The only course of safety, therefore, as well as comfort, is to make vigorous efforts to grow in grace.” This is a contradiction. Grace is never produced by vigorous effort human effort. It is a gift from God and comes by His blessing. He changes me as I get to know Jesus, not as I try harder.

Yet this growth is not a passive “zap.” I have to cooperate with God by obeying Him and practicing spiritual disciplines. Some of my responsibilities were given in the second devotional. It used these verses . . . 

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:2–4)

God offers truth and I am to set my mind on that. This truth includes facts like the life of Christ now lives in me. I am hidden in His life, and my old life is dead, separate from God and useless. That means several things, first of all that the Spirit of God affirms a simple security of life hid with Christ in God. The New Testament makes this plain.

We humanly (and sinfully) tend to think that living a holy life is precarious and we need to hang on for dear life, but this is not so. Eternal life is secure because God did it, is in it, behind it, making it happen by grace, not by human efforts.

As the second reading says, the precarious thing is to try and live without God and without grace. In contrast, those who are reborn by His Spirit find that living in right relationship to Him is as easy as walking in the light. By grace, God delivers us from sin. By grace, God keeps us in His will. By grace God gives us room to grow and does not beat us over the head for our stumbling or for missing the mark. While we do falter and even disobey, even those things are included in the “all” things that He uses for our good. This is not an excuse for failure, but God has used my sinful mistakes to teach me what is flesh and what I must “put it to death.” This is grace.

The second devotional concludes with these thoughts . . . “When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt Him. When (you see Him and) He says—‘Let not your heart be troubled,’ I defy you to trouble your mind. It is a moral impossibility to doubt when He is there. Every time you get into personal contact with Jesus, His words are real. ‘My peace I give unto you’ is a peace all over from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet, an irrepressible confidence. ‘Your life is hid with Christ in God’ and the imperturbable peace of Jesus Christ is imparted to you.”

This is grace, and when God blesses me with grace through the knowledge of Jesus Christ, grace does not grow --- I do.