(Further reflections on “When We Disagree 2.0”—Sunday 19-Sep-2021)
When we prayed “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10),” what picture did we have in mind about God’s Kingdom and the reality we want to live in?
The minute that we received Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, the faith journey had begun in Christ. By His grace, we are living under His rules and reign--His living Word. Thus, each of us is personally responsible before Him and will ultimately have to give an account to Him in the end (cf. Romans 14:10-12). Therefore, we should not pass judgment on matter of food/drink or anything that has nothing to do with righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit because God’s kingdom is about just these (cf. Romans 14:13-16). We are justified by faith in Christ and as a result we are righteous before God and this gives us peace with Him and joy in the Holy Spirit. We all would probably know this already in our head. But have we been experiencing it in our life? If the answer is rarely or occasionally or never, then the next question you should ask yourself is, what has hindered us? Or what are the possible stumbling blocks, i.e. past offenses or quarrels or disagreements, etc. that we might have had? Take time to take stock of our life.
Now picture this. If your righteousness, peace, and joy depend on whether someone agrees or disagree on matters like food or drink or politics or vaccines or anything else under the sun that has nothing to do with the Gospel of Jesus and the Kingdom of God, then you know for sure your peace is situational; your joy is circumstantial; and your righteousness is self/other-made. And when this happens, your faith in not in Christ alone but on your opinion/persuasion, which are the drivers of your life.
Wait. So can we still have our personal opinions or persuasions or judgments? We sure can, but we just keep them to ourselves. We can share them if someone asks. But we should not go around passing our judgments on others nor pressing our opinions/persuasions into someone’s throat nor forcing anyone to believe what we are being persuaded by. When we decide to practice this at home, church, office, and whichever situation we found yourself in, we are going to have our mind/heart focused on the Kingdom God as we will experience righteousness in Christ, peace with God through Jesus, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Now when we do pray, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10),” may none of us need to fake that reality, but truly live/experience it in our daily life. Amen. —
Pastor Lap
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