Be Careful Where Your Pendulum Swings

From Google Images

There are two sides to every believer. Let's use the symbolism of a pendulum to look at both sides.

The Far Left Side of the Pendulum Swing.

         On this side are the Law extremists. This is the side where the DO NOTTERS sit happily and they love telling you exactly what you cannot do as a Christian. Your NOT supposed to do this, or NOT supposed to do that as a Christian. If you DO this or if you DO that you are sure to burn in hell! If you ever mess up and say a cuss word, your going to HELL! If you have a tattoo, your GOING TO HELL! I have this extremely long laundry list of things you cannot do, and I will judge you if you do them and if you do, then your going to hell! Your life needs to be perfect ALL OF THE TIME!!! These are the people of what we do not like which is what we call "Legalism". Nobody likes all that legalism. You can't watch these movies, you can't listen to that music, you can't wear that kind of makeup its too much, you can't drive that kind of car. And these people love boasting about how they came into their relationship with God and that everyone else's coming forth needs to be just like theirs, magical and full of me showing off MY list of "Can't Do's" that I didn't ever do.

....See those people before? Haven't we all?

But also, the far right side can be just as dangerous.

The Far Right Side of the Pendulum Swing.

          This side can be just as dangerous as the other side. This side consists of the Grace extremists. Yes it is true that God sent his only son Jesus to die for our sins, so that by his grace (n.-a special favor or privilege) that He sent His son so we can live in the faith (a belief with a strong conviction) that God provided us with. Okay yes that is right but also these people who are the extremists of this case believe that they have a "license to sin". Whatever I do is justified because I am saved, Jesus will forgive me, all is okay so I will keep on doing it. These are the people that say they are Christians, they believe it fully, but their lives do not reflect their beliefs. And if your life does not reflect your beliefs, then aren't you wasting your time proclaiming you believe them?


What to do?

It is living in the tension of the two that is what is required of us. I could explain it first but I will just lay out a verse that does it much better than I can and then explain the verse.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,which God prepared in advance for us to do" -Ephesians 2:8-10

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-"
         Okay, we like that. We see that and we know that. We know that by a special favor or sacrifice sent from God that we can be saved, and through a special and strong conviction in what the History Book and God himself says, we can be saved. And that this salvation of sorts is from none other than God. It is a gift from him. Alcohol, drugs, sex, Oprah, Obama, Romney, Kim Kardashian, or any other idol cannot do it, it is a gift from God. We get that, okay, next.

"not by works, so that no one can boast."

        I love this part of the verse. So many people boast about the works that they did or do in their lives. Some say I ran across the Sahara desert to feed every child in India, look at meeee! Loooook at meeee! ME ME ME! People who are like this love boasting about their good works. Its funny though because God says right there that it is not about how much you have done, so that no one can boast, the promise is what you do through God.

"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus"

       PREACH ON!

"to do good works. Which God prepared in advance for us to do."

        Gulp....uh oh. But I thought it wasn't about good works? Well, it is about works that you do in God, the works in His name yes, but it is not about BOASTING in those works. You are no better than your neighbor so telling your neighbor that you are will only make your neighbor despise you. We all sin and that is just it. We will never be perfect but we try our hardest to glorify the name of God in our everyday lives. It is so hard but we are called to do it. God did this for us, we are His creation, we can live our lives for Him. It is the hardest thing to do in today's society, oh we know that, but we are still called to do it. So we have to just try our best is all we can do. We are not called to boast about our works, just do them in the name of God alone. We are not to boast about how we came to God and what he did or how magical it was because some people's coming forth to God could actually be scary and very life altering and maybe not so magical for them. Whether magical or not, it is still beautiful so don't be scared to share it, just do not boast loud about yourself because when you do that God frowns upon it and trust me, so does everyone around you. In this world today it is a battlefield and all we can do is try our best to live by the Word and by God, and if we really do that, if we really try, God will smile down on us, if we are humble about it though and do not boast.