Skip to main content

Persistence



To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil; first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good; first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism (Romans 2:7-11)

          Wait. Stop. God doesn’t show favoritism? Doesn’t this passage show that He does show favoritism? If you’re a goody-two-shoes, you get glory, honor, immortality and peace. If you’re not, you get wrath, anger, trouble and distress. And we all know that both the Jews and the Christians (and religious people in general) are the worst sort, don’t we?
          In Mere Christianity, Professor Lewis says that one of the things the existence of the moral law reveals to us is that the power behind it and the universe “is intensely interested in right conduct – in fair play, unselfishness, courage, good faith, honesty and truthfulness.” After all, most religious texts deal with the subject of doing good to get to heaven. He continues, “But do not let us go too fast here. The Moral Law does not give us any grounds for thinking that God is ‘good’ in the sense of being indulgent, or soft, or sympathetic.” 
          Paul seems to agree. He contrasts those who persist in doing good with those who do evil. How many goody-two-shoes do you know who persist in doing good all the time and never do evil? I may be cynical, but I strongly doubt that anyone other than Jesus Christ has gone through life persisting to do good and never doing evil. It doesn’t matter whether that person sees himself as one of God’s chosen people (the Jews) or as someone else (the Greeks.) If a person could get through life persisting to do what is good and never doing what is evil, then that person would deserve glory, honor, immortality and peace. It doesn’t matter whether that person is a Jew or a Greek
          “But…nobody’s perfect.” You’re right. That is the point. We are all fallen. Shouldn’t God grade on a curve? Make allowances? If He did, he would no longer be moral…no longer good. He would be showing favoritism. If you only commit treason once, haven’t you still committed treason. The woman who is faithful to her husband ninety-nine percent of the time effectively spends 3.65 days of the year having at least one affair, or cheats with every hundredth man she encounters. Somehow, I suspect most women who are unfaithful are unfaithful more than one percent of the time. The woman who cheats once has still cheated. 
         I agree that all of that sounds very harsh. The picture is very bleak and grim. But wait, there’s more…

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Pure...

            The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (I Timothy 1:5)   I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16) I’m probably cheating - or mishandling the Bible, but earlier I was thinking about love being pure and purifying. And hatred being pure and purifying. And anger…joy…patience… fear… jealousy… courage…lust… and other strongly felt feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. Today’s verse brings purity and love together, so it’s the verse of the day, but it’s not really the focus. That means my motive for sharing it with you probably isn’t pure. As you read through my list, you   probably thought, “Yeah” about some, and “What’s she on?” about others. But consider how much hatred, a...
Post a Comment
Read more