Growing in Jesus: Doing our homework.

"So I say this, and insist in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding, the hardness of their hearts has caused them to become ignorant and therefore alienated from the life of God.  Because they are callous, they have given themselves over to indecency for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. 

 But you did not learn about Christ like this! ... You were taught, with reference to your former way of life, to lay aside the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new man who has been created in God’s image – in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth."

Eph. 4:17-24

"Nobody drifts into the Kingdom of God. You have to go there on purpose with every choice you make" 

I heard someone say the other day that as Christians we have to do our 'homework' if we're going to learn and grow. If we cheat on the test we don't learn anything. God wont make our choices for us. He tells us the truth, makes the right path available, then it's up to us to own up to his invitation, soften our hearts to his commands and do something. 

It's an interesting excercise to look for the action verbs that apply to us in the Scripture. Count the action imperatives in Proverbs 4, for instance (38 imperatives in 27 verses!). According to this verse, who is responsible for our falling away (not the devil) and who is responsible for growth (not God alone)? Look closely... 

because they are callous (they have given themselves over to [every evil practice])

but you were taught (someone chose to speak truth to us) 

lay aside the old man (we must actively lay aside)

be renewed in the spirit of your mind (we were taught to actively do this ongoing work of obedience)

put on the new man (we must take responsibility to pro-actively choose this) 

All this is ongoing work, of course. It doesn't happen automatically. Drifting is a choice too.

And God makes choices, he has chosen to walk with us and direct us. But if we don't walk we get no where. If we become passive and drift, we will always drift away from the Kingdom of Jesus.  We live in an age of convenience. The dishwasher washes our dishes for us, the preacher does our thinking for us, the worship band sings our songs for us. To not make our own choices, or to blame others is to choose give our choices away. Though there are plenty who would be glad to make our choices for us, God wont. 

He will light our path, we must step foward on it daily. This tension is fascinating and challenging to me.