Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Romans 13:8-14; Focus

Its all about focus. If you focus upon details, you lose the big picture. If you focus on details, you lose sight of what the end product is supposed to be. How often do we teach on the details but forget to teach on the big picture.

Love is the goal and the journey. All the commandments give love shape and direction. However, focusing on the detailed commandments has a subtle way of focusing us upon the negative. If I spend all day focused upon not lusting, still the only thing on my mind is lust. If I spend all day focused upon not reacting in anger, my first thought is going to be anger. So the little line at the end of this section that says "do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature" is quite profound. Instead of meditating on or questioning where the line is and how far can I go, the concept is to question how close to the heart of God can I live? If the focus is upon loving others who have the image of God rather than "thou shalt not", the result will have to be quite different, the result surely will be more positive and loving.

It is such a simple concept that it sounds almost ridiculous. Yet, living in a ridiculous way sounds a lot like Jesus.

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