Time, Energy and Money

 

We can spend our time, our energy and our money on things that entertain us and make us feel good but ultimately the question of how these things impact the health of our soul is the most important question to ask. Someone may be beautiful, rich, and talented but if they harden their soul in the process, it is all for naught. A parent, at the same time, must ask himself if he is raising his children with a godly sense of priorities.

This is a difficult truth to communicate in the modern American culture, when these three things are elevated to the top of “that which is most important”.

The End Goal

 

What is the end result of the man who only eats processed food and junk food?

What is the end result of the man who only reads comic books and watches “fail” and “cat” videos?

What is the end result of the man who looks only to be comfortable?

Are we striving for excellence or are we content with what is easy and distracting?

Stories and Metaphors

 

Don’t mistake the use of a particular metaphor or illustration for the truth that underlies it. When saints of the past use any particular metaphor, don’t make the mistake of understanding that literally or thinking that the imagery is the point of the story. The saints use any particular imagery to communicate the truth of consequences for one’s life choices. We need to understand the truth they were communicating and modify the imagery for our own day, to reach the people of our time and culture.

Viewing Others and Viewing Ourselves

 

Why is it when we see someone whose particular sin is repulsive to us, we automatically think, “That person is messed up”, or “That person needs serious help” but when we look upon ourselves with our own sins, we give ourselves such grace and understanding. Everyone struggles with sins and none of them are acceptable.

Sin is one thing, but crime is another. That which negatively impacts society at large needs to be addressed but addressed with mercy and understanding. Condemnation and judgment have no place when dealing with sin. Help needs to be given not hatred or violence. When we see someone else and are tempted to judge them for their sins, we need to instead focus on ourselves and our own sins.

It is then that we will understand the value of mercy and forgiveness.

Proximity to God

 

What does it all mean? I read the description of the ideal life from the monastic perspective and its methodology is radically different from the priestly/spiritual father description given to the common layperson. Which at the same time is radically different from the average American way of living. What is the balance between living as a layperson while seeking after holiness and addressing the practical needs of everyday life? Where does social interaction, needs/wants, and biochemistry fit in?

If the state of eternal life is one of gradation with the holy being closer to God and the unholy being further from God, how would each of these describe their own personal state? If the unholy person has ignored/rejected God his entire life, would not an eternity as far away from God be that which they desire? But at the same time, if man was created to be holy and to live in a relationship with God, the unholy person would be miserable at the same time, for he could not bear being in the presence of holiness. And what does proximity to holiness even mean?

And what does all of this mean for the Protestant/evangelical/Roman believer or for anyone who has self-defined holiness?

If the goal of the Christian life is simply “love God and love your neighbor”, how does personal holiness fit into that and how is personal holiness even defined?

When Jesus spoke of the law as being summarized as “love God and love neighbor”, he was speaking to Jews who were defined by the Old Covenant law.  Any time that the “law of God” is spoken of in the NT must be understood not as the Mosaic law but Jesus’ summary.

The Place of Content within Tradition

 

A critique against the Orthodox church is their valuation of tradition. Tradition does not overrule or replace Holy Scripture. Instead, Holy Scripture needs to be understood within the context of tradition. “That which the Church has always believed and practiced” is the definition of tradition. Tradition is not about man made rules or practices but is the truth handed down by the apostles to subsequent generations, it is unwritten belief and practice.

While tradition is a necessary and unavoidable foundation for historic Christianity, this does not mean that the method of teaching doesn’t change. The worldview and language in which the Church was born is vastly different than the world in which we live today. Because culture and knowledge has radically changed over the past 2000 years, so too much our approach and methodology but not the content.

The way we talk must change but what we teach cannot.

Generational Authority

 

Generational authority is a historic reality. A king will be in power and will pass his kingship onto his eldest child. The kingdom may be vast and powerful but the child, being young, inexperienced, and immature, will not understand the incredible opportunity he has been given. As the child grows and matures, he will begin to grow into his role and advance the kingdom forward.

This is the nature of our reality as the Church. With the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, we began our role as small children inheriting a vast kingdom. It is now our responsibility to take dominion over the earth. That role of dominion will continue to expand into the entire universe. We do not understand the huge responsibility and incredible opportunity that we have been given.

It is only when we continue to mature that we will know how to rightly make use of everything in the known universe. And this will take eons to even begin to accomplish.