I generally try to cook complicated topics down into a few simple concepts. It is a whole lot easier, in the crush of daily living to remember…….and act on…..a few simple concepts rather than to follow 625 laws.

So what are the core ideals of Christianity…….concepts that we can…….that we must…..focus on and obey?

Love
Humility

I have tried to fill out the list. But, everything I find actually grows out of those two tenets.

Love is easy to identify as a core value.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Jesus summarizing Christianity in four sentences.
Matthew 22, 37-40, ESV

Love is easy to identify as one of the core values of Christianity.  But, to act on that love……all day, every day……is hard. Fact is, none of us can consistently pull it off. But, at least, we know what the goal is. We know what is expected.

Humility, on the other hand, is much less obvious.  Even worse, humility runs counter to our basic instincts.  It is fairly easy to love. I love my wife. I love my family. I even love my dog. But, if I am being honest,  humility is not always at the top of the list of considerations in my relationships.

So…….today, I want to explore humility…..in the context of our relationship with our creator.

Humility,  at its core is the understanding that the other entity in a relationship is superior to me……to us. The concept is simple. The application of it, however, is tough. Humility……actually, the lack of humility…….is the main reason that secular humanists reject Christianity. Even worse, lack of humility is a failure that plagues many, if not most, people who identify as Christians.

First, the non-believer……the secular humanist. He denies the existence of a “higher power” outright.  Any data point that implies that there is an entity on a higher plane than mankind…….he rejects outright, typically without investigation. He then assembles a construct that tells him that he is the apex being……the top of the pyramid. He martials science and observed fact to support his position at the apex. He fills in any gaps with extrapolations, assumptions,  and theories…….whether there is any proof to support them or not.

Then, the person who identifies as Christian. He  checks the boxes, gets baptized, goes to church, participates in the food drive, etc. But, when he reads the  “owners manual”,  if he reads it at all, at the end of every line, he asks, “do I believe this?…….do I agree with with this?……do I approve of this?” In a word, he gives himself the power of a “line item veto” over the word of God. How can he do this? Simple.  In his heart, he does not accept God’s sovereignty…….God’s absolute sovereignty…….over every aspect of his life. Rather, he assumes the position of absolute sovereign. His failure is a failure to subordinate himself to his creator. At its core, this is a failure of humility.

His mantra?

“You are not the boss of me!……nobody is.”

I believe that this is the single greatest failure among professing Christians.

So…..What is the solution?

Love Jesus…..God……and act on that love every day because you recognize his absolute sovereignty……his absolute authority over every facet of your life.

Love and humility. This is Christianity.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul describing God’s love for us, Romans,  8 38-39, ESV

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

Daniel explaining man’s relationship with God, Daniel 4:35, ESV

Separation…….from Jesus……from God.

We all experience it. In the “Screwtape Letters”, C.S. Lewis describes our separation from God to be the ultimate goal of sin……..of Satan. We need to take a good hard look at separation. We need to study it closely because every last one of us is separated from God to one degree or the other. One of the goals of Christianity……one of the goals of this blog……is to diminish the amount of this separation from God in our culture as a whole. And we must begin with ourselves. We can’t really help others with their separation problem without understanding and battling with our own separation problem. This is a good working definition of hypocrisy.

So……. what does separation from God look like? I think that there are many different “flavors” of separation from God:

Never heard of Jesus
Never give Jesus a thought
Science worship
Hate Jesus
Don’t have time for Jesus
Disagree with the teaching of Jesus
Agree with Jesus….but just can’t keep up
Love Jesus but fail……every day

Never heard of Jesus. This is extremely rare. Far more common is mistaken understanding of his teaching. We can fight this by modeling love, studying the Bible, and gently teaching others.

Never give Jesus a thought. This is very common, even among those who identify as Christians. We just get busy and stay that way. We were meant to have an ongoing conversation with our creator……you can call it prayer. It should feel like an exchange with an intimate friend, someone who knows everything about you……because Jesus does. If you are thinking about something, God is interested.

Science worship. We test everything that comes into our consciousness against the tenets of current scientific thought. We ignore the gaps in this knowledge. We accept all of the assumptions and theories of science, including those that have no factual basis (the origin of life, the origin of the universe). Anything else, anything that science cannot explain we reject as myth whether it is true or not.

Hate Jesus. This is pretty rare. It is best described in Dawkin’s book. “The God delusion”. This is very scary. Because in order to hate God…..you must first recognize his existence.

Don’t have time for Jesus. This is a cousin to never giving him a thought. You recognize Jesus as God, but you are busy…..distracted. You go to church on Sunday, sing the songs, put a couple of dollars in the tray, and then say goodbye till next week. This is arguably the most common form of separation. You are a nominal Christian. But, you are missing out on the true power of Christianity.

Disagree with the teaching of Jesus. You start building your character by asking the wrong question. You ask, “do I approve of the teaching of Jesus…..of the Bible?”….. when you should be asking, “Is Jesus true, is the Bible true?” Because, if it’s true, then the fact that you don’t approve…….is irrelevant.

Agree with Jesus, but can’t keep up. There is a lot of stuff in the Bible. Let’s face it, it’s a huge book. The only way to learn this faith……the only way to “keep up”…..is to read the “owners manual”. And that is hard. If you don’t read the owners manual for your car, it’s not surprising that you haven’t read the Bible. There is an old saw.

How do you eat an elephant?……one bite at a time.

Read a little bit every day. Start with the book of John.

Love Jesus……but fail every day. Welcome to my world. Christianity is about love. Sounds simple, but it is not. In your thoughts and in your acts, you will fail every day. Don’t be discouraged. You are a human……not Jesus. Do the best you can and try to improve.

“The saints are just the sinners who fall down……and get up” Bob Carlyle

So……where are you? What flavor of separation do you live with?

Can you improve?

Can you do your bit……to lower the level of separation from God in our culture?

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul, Romans 8: 38-39

the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy (God). It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards will do the trick.

A demon explaining sin, C.S. Lewis, “The Screwtape Letters”

I don’t know.

I don’t know.

I don’t know…….and neither do you.

I build my life on the tenets of Christianity. I build my life on the Bible and on the teaching of Jesus.

At least I try.

The Bible, in broad strokes, says that the world and time are in motion. That motion is not circular……it is linear. Time had a beginning and it will end. The world and time are not sustainable……they were never intended to be. There will be an end and it will be ugly. There will be an end for you and for me, individually. There will be an end……for everything. And we know very little about what follows the end. There is a part of us that will continue after the end, whether that end is our individual death or a global apocalypse. The part of us that goes on after death will experience either eternal joy…..or eternal pain.

Which?

And there is the rub. Who decides?

The decision does not fall to you. It does not fall to me. It does not fall to the preacher blasting us with fire and brimstone…….death and damnation.

God decides.

In the end……it’s all about God. It’s not about you or me. It’s not about our appetites or our identity.

I can only speculate on how God will make that decision. But, I believe that he will operate in a manner consistent with his identity and with his plan. He will decide based on who he is and on what will fulfill his long term goal.

What is God’s identity?

Love

What is his long term goal?

Relationship

So…..here it is…….my best guess.

God will populate paradise based on love and relationship………his love and his desire for relationship……our love and our desire for relationship.

All I can do…….all you can do…….is to pursue those ideals…….and trust in God’s love and in his desire to have a relationship……with me…..with you…..with every soul……unborn, living, and dead.

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”

Paul, 1 Corinthians, 2-9, ESV

Well…..maybe.

Imagine a sunny August afternoon. You are in an inner tube floating down a beautiful river. You have a 6 pack of beer. There are about a dozen of your friends, also in tubes. Everybody is laughing and cutting up. The plan is to float down the river, drink the beer, have a cook out, watch the stars come out, and then camp for the night.

Life is good…..couldn’t get any better.

Now add in the fact that the river is the Niagara river and you are a mile upstream from Niagara Falls. If you stay in the tube, finish your beer, and just enjoy the day……you are going to go over the falls and die. That is the path that you and I are on. The outcome is inevitable…….if you do nothing but enjoy the ride. But it doesn’t have to be. You can paddle to shore, finish your beer and wave at your friends as they float past. But, in order to escape the coming disaster, you must act. And time is short.

Life is like that. You have a default destination…….a place where you will wind up……..if you do nothing but enjoy the ride. And that place is not good. In fact it is unspeakably bad. Hell. We all have some evil in us. Some have a lot…….some a little. But, rest assured, the evil in me……and in you…..is enough to damn us. In a word, you can be as good as you want, you can do as much good as you want……..but it won’t be enough. Mother Theresa was not “good enough” to earn paradise. Neither are you and neither am I. Most Christians……in fact, most humans…….. believe that good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell. That is not true. That is not what the Bible teaches. That is not what Jesus teaches. “NOT FAIR” you say! Welcome to the river.

I don’t know the details. But, I believe in a burning hell. I believe this because Jesus believed it. When a guy dies and then comes back to life…….you have to take what he says seriously.

And what Jesus says is this. Paradise is yours for the asking. But you must act. You must recognize the divinity of Jesus and accept his gift of salvation. That’s it…….that’s all.

Or

You can stay in your inner tube, down another beer, and enjoy the afternoon.

But know this……there are going to be a lot of people in paradise who are not nearly as “good” as you are, people who take the deal, paddle to shore and wave at you as you float by.

“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”

Jesus, explaining hell. Luke 16: 19-31, ESV

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus, explaining salvation, John 14:6, ESV