His Likeness Shall See

We were singing a hymn on Sunday called Take Time To Be Holy and one of the lines says "By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be; Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see." It really got me thinking.  His likeness shall see.  That's a pretty hefty responsibility.  I can think of a lot of things I portray and I'm not sure how often Jesus' likeness is it.  Instead of gossip or complaining, worry or criticism, I need to be showing Jesus' radical, unbiased, overwhelming, undeserved, lavishing love all the time. And that's not easy. It requires investment into relationships - relationships with people that I might not normally choose to befriend.  Am I willing to start calling people my friends, not because we click or have a lot in common, but just because God tells me to love and serve them?

When I think about Jesus and the people he engaged, the people he loved, the people he ministered to.. it's so hard to live up to!  How did he do it?  This is kinda weird, but sometimes I drive past this adult video store on the highway and think, I bet Jesus would walk right in there and talk to the guy working at the counter. But I wouldn't. Someone might see my car out front and get the wrong idea. Something might offend my pure, virgin eyes.  Counter Guy might not be receptive to my message. Bottom line, I'm afraid. I've had some conversations recently about answering your front door and talking to strangers on the side of the road. No doubt in my mind that Jesus would never look through the peephole and decide not to answer the door. Jesus probably wouldn't have a peephole at all. But I do. And you can be guaranteed that if I don't know the person on the other side, I'm not opening it. Bottom line, I'm afraid. I've got to get to a place where I hand my fears over to Jesus and trust him to love people through me.  (Praying for his wisdom and guidance in all things, of course.  I'm not suggesting we be reckless just for the sake of being reckless.)

I've been thinking a lot about the things it seems we Christians are willing to make noise about.  I hesitate to give specific examples because I don't have enough time and space to give all the disclaimers and caveats and good points on both sides, but I think y'all know the major issues at play in the political and religious arenas these days.  Point being, there's an awful lot of noise coming out of Christians right now that is not rooted in love, which means it's not displaying Jesus' likeness.  And if that's all people hear, then can we blame them for thinking Jesus is not really someone they'd like to follow?  Now, I know there are mountains and heaps of love in The Church. I see it all the time. But for some reason, it just doesn't seem to permeate to the outside world. Though there are people adopting babies and feeding the hungry and loving their neighbor all over the place, still the message the world receives is Judgment. Hypocrisy. Narrow Minded.  Why?  I don't think we can attribute all of it to an unbelieving world rejecting or persecuting the true gospel of Christ (certainly some, but not all).  Might it be that many of us, myself included, have been raised to stay inside the safe walls of the church and lavish our love on each other such that we don't give much of it away to the broken, the needy, the foul-mouthed, the Counter Guy? The ones that threaten our precious morality and catapult us right out of our comfortable places?

I was preparing for a bible study lesson a few weeks ago and did a quick little research project on Jesus' commands. My goal was to prove that Jesus commands us to go and do and serve because that fit in really nicely with what I wanted to say.  What I found instead was a whoooole lot of "be holy and righteous and love God" commands and a healthy sprinkling of "go and do and serve" commands.  So basically we are to get our own righteousness in order - quite the never-ending project - and then love other people.  Never, ever does Jesus instruct us to rant and rave about the sins of unbelievers. (Disclaimer - Is there a place for speaking the truth in love regarding sin to our Christian brothers and sisters? Yes.)  Paul traveled to some of the most pagan, hedonistic places on Earth - places that make America look downright puritanical - and never did he argue with the people about their idols or their lifestyles.  He simply preached the gospel, that people might hear that Jesus was really the son of God and the source of salvation for everyone.  And I can't help but think that's because you can't change a person from the outside in.  What good is it to try to force someone to follow a moral code?  Even if we could do it (and we totally can't), then what?  That doesn't change hearts or transform lives.  Transformation has to come from the inside out, and how can that happen but from a relationship with a person who shows them His likeness?  May we be those kind of people.