Thursday, April 13, 2017

"Unto the Pure"

"Unto the Pure"                      
  
   We tend to compartmentalize our lives, particularly regarding the spiritual and the natural.  Our Heavenly Father instead calls us to realize that no real difference exists between the sacred and secular.

   "Unto the pure, all things are pure" (Titus 1:15).

   The Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ most reveals the union of Heavenly and earthly things.  "Great is the mystery of the Gospel.  God was manifest in the flesh" (I Timothy 3:16).  In our Savior, we see the wonder of God's eternal purposes whereby He synthesizes the seen and the unseen.  Our Lord had to become human in order to redeem us, and to spiritually rebirth us as human beings inhabited by the living God.  "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you" (Romans 8:9).  Believers are spiritual in identity and nature, while retaining our natural components and faculties.  Like our Lord, we exist in terms of both Heavenly and earthly realities.

   The effect of such truth in our lives involves the ongoing process of uniting the sacred and the secular in our hearts, minds, and lives.

   "Whatsoever ye do, whether ye eat or drink, do all to the glory of God" (I Corinthians 10:31).
   "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord" (Colossians 3:23).
   "We live unto the Lord" (Romans 14:8).

   The Apostle Paul's command that we "eat or drink" to the glory of God should thrill our hearts.  The seemingly ordinary act of consuming food and drink provides opportunity to glorify the Lord Jesus.  This means we can experience His reality in all things rather than viewing some things as spiritual and others as earthly.  For example, do we view prayer as more spiritual than washing dishes?  If so, we have not realized the altar that lies before us in the sink.  We can know, trust, honor, and obey the Lord in all things (excepting sin, obviously).  Salvation in Christ unites the spiritual and the natural, as expressed in His incarnation.  Our Savior destroyed the notion that place, circumstance, ritual, or religious exercise offer more opportunity to know and love God than other aspects of life.  Again, "unto the pure, all things are pure."

   I haven't written this well enough to communicate the enormity of the truth we presently consider together.  God offers Himself to us in "whatsoever ye do."  As we seek to walk with Him in faith and faithfulness, we live unto Him regardless of whether our activities seem overtly spiritual.  Such truth, believed, assimilated, and embraced, will progressively change everything in our lives.  Everything.  An altar lies before us in all things, a spiritual place of grace that presents its opportunity for devotion in every moment.  We'll miss much of the possibility, as we already have.  But we do not have to miss all.  Nor do we have to miss as much as we have in the past.  The destruction of the compartments of our lives enables us to increasingly live as if our Lord is present, involved, and active in all things.  Because He is.  

"The whole earth is full of His glory."
(Isaiah 6:3)

Weekly Memory Verse
   Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
(Ephesians 1:3)
  
  

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