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Authentic Selves?


For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (II Corinthians 5:14-15)
                The world teaches us that in order to be fully alive, we must be authentic, we must seek and find personal fulfillment in whatever speaks to us. If you feel it, it must be true and you and therefore to deny it is evil… as long as the it in question has been approved by the world. And, because those who feel things that haven’t been approved by the world can be identified as an oppressed minority, the range of things that the world approves seems to be growing quickly. 
               It shouldn’t be a surprise that Scripture teaches against this. I can’t think of many religions that don’t have some “thou shalt nots” that the world doesn’t reject. As I’ve said before, at least in their laws of human interaction, most religions work within rules that have been seen to work. In addressing how Jews and Christians are to interact with people, how could the rules be vastly different? And, as Jesus warned us that the world hated Him, and would hate his followers as well, how could we not expect the world to respond badly to anything we say? We declare its guilt
               Today’s passage is an example of that. The world says, “Be your authentic self. If it feels right to you, you must do it because to do otherwise is hating yourself. Love yourself by giving yourself everything you want, everything you believe you deserve to have, and more.” Christians are told, “Don’t live for yourself. Live for Christ.” It doesn’t matter how I feel. It doesn’t matter how you feel. In fact, most of those feelings, and most of those “authentic” selves we hold on to so tightly are precisely the chains that hold us in bondage.

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