“Blessed
are they who follow the law of the Lord!
You have commanded that your precepts be diligently kept.” [Psalms 119:1-34]
“For the
Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.” [1Corinthians 2:6-10]
“Therefore,
whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do
so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these
commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I tell you, unless your righteousness
surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of
heaven.” [Matthew
5:17-37]
As I reflect
on my Bible passages today, I think they’re all about options—good and bad,
right and wrong. With free will, we have
actual options. We can choose, but those
choices come with ramifications and outcomes. We have what we need to make good choices. We have the commandments. These laws are not capricious or onerous. They are appropriate and eternal. Don’t kill. Don’t cheat. Don’t steal. They come down to treating each other
respectfully and showing that we love God by loving His creation. It’s really simple at its basis: love God and
love one another.
We can and
should choose to do that. Unfortunately,
not everyone does. We can choose to do
the right thing. We can choose to treat
others decently and respectfully, but unfortunately not everyone does. Even some who call themselves Christians prove
that by not loving God’s creation and following the commandments. Jesus says in the gospel that we can choose to
be good. We can choose to do right. We
can choose to respect others and their property. But if we choose not to, even though we may
gain some benefit here on earth, we will not gain a place in heaven. We know what we should do. We know how we should act. It’s no secret, and it’s really basic decency.
This is an informed choice.
We can
choose to do what’s right. We can choose
to do good. And we should do it for its
own sake, but if we do right, we’ll get a heavenly reward as well.
Lord of all grace, You came and not only taught us about the heights of holiness, but You also lived it and have bestowed upon us all we need to imitate Your every virtue. Please fill me with Your mercy and strength so that I may live a new righteousness of the fullness of love. Jesus, I trust in You.
No comments:
Post a Comment