6 – 16 – 17 Doing or Being

Link to Daily Readings

Lately, once in a blue moon, I’ll anticipate the daily readings for the next day. By this I mean that some core message of Friday’s readings will flash before my mind sometime Thursday and help me come to some decision or make some determination. This happened yesterday with “You have heard… You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you everyone who lusts after a woman has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Not only is this a good passage to convince yourself that fantasizing is not permissible it’s also incredibly interesting as it represents the enormous departure Jesus makes from the Old Testament in a way that makes following him both infinitely easier, indeed possible, and much more stringent.

In the Old Testament there is little mention of intention or feelings, we are simply instructed to do the right thing and so long as we control ourselves we will be considered holy. Now through the performance of right actions many people are led into the correct frame of mind of holiness, and righteousness in action becomes second nature to them. But there are also begrudgingly holy people, who harbor malice, lust, and greed against their neighbors but, through enormous effort, overcome these challenges every day to serve God.

Jesus recognizes this struggle among his disciples and sees that there can be no permanent life of holiness in this constant state of struggle. Either the malice and greed will fall away, or the good works will. So He makes the critical distinction to His disciples that they are to be transformed from the inside-out, rather than from the outside-in. They will make their interior lives so harmonious with the Spirit of God that they will have no desire to do evil. In this way their interior struggle will be eliminated and it will not take a great force of will to do good. They will also have a perfect example for what to emulate, and rather than following innumerable rules, they will now follow one example, the Christ. So in short, the WWJD bracelets are on to something.

One metaphor that helps me visualize this distinction is the idea of walking through the woods on a path. If you keep your head up, and try to see where the trees aren’t and go there you may follow the path. But you may end up in some clearing or dried-out riverbed and not know where you are. You’d have a much easier time just looking at the path and putting one foot in front of the other on that worn way.

It is obvious why being like Jesus is harder in some ways than following rules. Whereas in the Old Testament one is seeking to be a holy person of the likes of Abraham, in the New Covenant Jesus desires that we live up to his standards. On our own this is quite obviously impossible, but in the Spirit acting through our lives it is not only possible but necessary.

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