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i’m doing a summer teaching series on the fruit of the spirit, and yesterday we studied on the fruit of joy.
in my study during the week, the thing that i kept coming back to is how ridiculous the commands are. if you are a follower of christ…and you really trust in the authority of scripture…and you really believe that god knows best…you’ve got a serious bar to live up to:
don’t worry. ever.
don’t let the sun go down on your anger.
love your enemies.
forgive the way god forgives you. really?
don’t judge others.
don’t be a hypocrite. yeah, right.
consider your trouble as pure joy. sweet. sign me up.
be perfect. no comment.
like i said. the standard is ridiculous. who lives up to it? who even comes close? it seems as if people believe god’s expectations are so ridiculously hard…and they can’t live up to them anyway…and they’re going to be forgiven if they fall short…and god already knows we’re miserable, unrighteous sinners…well, why even bother?
i’m not being cynical here. i’m being totally realistic. people know jesus commands us not to worry, but they thoughtlessly and carelessly worry anyway. all day long.
god’s word is clear: don’t let the sun go down on your anger…but people harbor bitterness and withhold forgiveness and seek revenge every day, as if the command had an asterisk by it that said, ”just kidding. god.”
’nuff said. you get my point. but here’s my thought about marriage:
in our marriage vows, we say ridiculous things like:
i promise to love you. always.
i promise to serve you. every day of my life.
i promise honor you and treasure you.
i promise to give you my very best.
i promise that no matter how much money we have…or don’t have… i will never change how i treat you.
i promise that even if you change, i won’t stop loving you.
i promise that i will never hurt you…and always protect you.
i promise to be faithful to you…alone…until one of us dies. period.
oh those ridiculous wedding vows! do we really intend to keep them…or do we look at those words the same way we do the words of god?
do we see them as ridiculously unattainable? do we consider standards set by the words of our vows as empty and optional as we do the standards set by the almighty?
if we are that careless with god’s words, why would anybody believe we would cherish our vows any more?
just thinking…
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