If You're Still Stalling, You Haven't Been Repaired

This has probably happened to you, too: I took my car to a shop a couple years back, because it wouldn't start properly. The mechanic looked it over, fixed... something... and declared it repaired. Within a couple of days, I noticed the car still wasn't starting the way it should and took it back. I don't know what the mechanic fixed, but it wasn't the problem. If he had, I would have seen a change. Pretty basic stuff.

In the same way, a lot of people claim to know Jesus -- that He has come in and transformed their lives. But, when you actually look at their lives, it seems nothing has changed.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that in Christ we are a new creation. Not a changed creation -- new. Meaning, if we are truly transformed in Jesus, we will be different than we were before. We will reflect Christ to those around us, creating an undeniable witness.

If the book of 1 John has an overall message to it, I think it's this: that people truly transformed by Christ will show it in the way they treat others.

We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them. (1 John 2:3-11)

God's will in our lives is evidenced by our love for those around us. It's really that simple. 

I don't have a lot to add, except this: First John is an exceptional book, and not extremely long. Ask God to prepare your heart, to open it to His teaching, and then take a moment to read this epistle. And as you read, compare it to your own life and ask: Does my life reflect the change God has made in me -- and if it doesn't, can I really claim to know Him?

If the Shoebox Fits

photo from ehow

The Family -- that is,  the radio station where I work -- is collecting shoeboxes to hold Christmas gifts for families in need.  So, yesterday, as I was bringing in some extras we had floating around the house, I started to wonder: if it no longer holds shoes, is it still a shoe box?

Is it what it is because that's how it was made, or is it defined instead by what's in it? When we put a present in it and wrap it in nice paper, has it ceased to be a simple shoebox and become a gift box?

I don't know about boxes, but Man is defined by what's inside. On the outside, man is simple enough: lumps of flesh, tissue of various textures and uses, stacks of bone... but this is the stuff that houses the man; not who the man actually is.

Scripture tells us we were born sinners. Paul says, in Romans 5:12-14

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law.  Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.

However, 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that, when we are Forgiven and Justified by Christ, we become new creations. Nothing has changed on the outside, but we have been repurposed. Though we are still the same box we were before, what was inside has been pulled out and replaced with Grace; and that has changed who we are.