“As a result of your ministry, they will give glory to God. For your generosity to them and to all believers will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ. And they will pray for you with deep affection because of the overflowing grace God has given to you. Thank God for this gift too wonderful for words!”
2 Corinthians 9:13-15 NLT
Being obedient to the Good News of Christ, at first sight, would seem to refer to responding to the Gospel message of salvation. We come to the Cross with our burden of sin, and leave it there as we repent of our sins and believe in Jesus and His power to forgive us. It is where our faith buds and blossoms, as we adopt the righteousness of Jesus as a cloak, leaving us free to come into God’s presence, enabling us to call Him Abba, Father. It is a wonderful occasion as we commence our journey to glory, working out our salvation as He leads us day by day. But it is there that we discover repentance from sin requires a life change. So many of our old ways have to change. No longer can we practice the lifestyle that had us bound in a life of sin. Our worldview has to change. Our relationships have to change. And our response to the promptings of the Holy Spirit’s nudges within us takes us along a road totally different to the one we were on before. And a new thought starts to form in our minds as we realise that being obedient to Christ is more than camping at the Cross; it involves being proactive in a life of service and selflessness.
We pilgrims came to such a place when we submitted our lives to Jesus. It was there when we learned to say “Yes, Lord” rather than “No, I’ll go my own way”. It was there that we discovered what “dying to self” really meant. Jesus “… said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me”” (Luke 9:23). But here is a puzzle. What did Jesus mean about taking up our crosses? Thankfully, Paul gave us the answer in Galatians 2:20, “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”. Paul again wrote about what cross-living really means in Romans 12:1-2, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect”. The impact of Jesus’ message was that following Him means that we cannot follow our own selfish, and often evil, desires. We have to nail all of that to a cross and leave it there. We then live our lives by being obedient to Christ. The reality for believers everywhere is that we cannot have one foot in the world and the other in God’s Kingdom. It is one or the other. A person who flip-flops between the two must have been at the back of James’ mind when he wrote, “But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do” (James 1:6-8). Jesus also had some hard words for the Laodicean church. He said, “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!” (Revelation 3:15-16).
Back in Corinth, Paul commended the church there for being “obedient to the Good News of Christ” by giving an offering to help the poor in Judea. How is that connected to the Gospel message of salvation through Jesus alone? As we have seen previously, the response to the Gospel leads to a life of love and service to God, in which obedience is key. Their old selves must have been trying their best to reduce the amounts they gave, or to conveniently lead them to other business outside the church on the day the offering was taken. But Paul then referred to another Kingdom word – grace. If God had been so gracious to them by forgiving them for their sins, how could they not extend that grace to other brothers and sisters in need?
Today we pilgrims are living a new life devoted to God in love and obedience. Our lives are all about love, trust, and faith, all tangible and real elements of the Christian life. From the perspective of our old, selfish, and Godless ways, much of what God asks us to do makes no sense at all. But in our new Kingdom life, where we live by the Spirit, the old ways don’t apply. Instead, we once again say “Yes Lord”, no ifs or buts, and just do what He has asked us to do. What else can we do in response to such love and grace?
Dear Heavenly Father. We thank You for Your grace and love, so freely and lavishly given to us. We worship You today. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 