REMEMBERING OUR ROOTS

“What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7).

The believer in Christ is a person who has been incredibly blessed by Jesus Christ (Cf. Ephesians 1:3).  While we sometimes forget how blessed we are, and though we can’t even now imagine the full extent of all we possess in Christ (Cf. Ephesians 3:8), to lose sight of the cause and source of these blessings is a grievous thing.

We sometimes behave like spoiled children.  Spoiled children live in a fantasy world of prideful expectancy.  They mistakenly assume they deserve all that they are given.  They tend to look down on others who lack what they have because they do not realize or recognize that they only have what they have because it has been given to them.

It is possible for us, as believers, to act lack spoiled children.  We forget our roots and the reason why we are so blessed.  We forget that we have what we have solely because of grace.  Paul wrote to the believers in Ephesus and reminded them of their roots (Cf. Ephesians 2:1-3).  They had been dead in their trespasses and sins before Christ saved them (Cf. Ephesians 2:1).  It was by God’s grace that they were made alive (Cf. Ephesians 2:5).  They had walked according to the course of this world, it was by God’s grace that they were led and empowered to walk in an altogether different manner (Cf. Ephesians 2:2, 10; 4:1).  They had been duped and led by the prince of the power of the air, it was by God’s grace that they had been delivered from his domain (Cf. Ephesians 2:2; Colossians 1:13).  They had been children of wrath, it was by God’s grace that they were given the right to become children of God (Cf. Ephesians 2:3; John 1:12; 1 John 3:1).

The sole difference between me and a lost person is that I’ve been saved.  I did nothing to earn or merit my salvation.  My spiritual resume was no different or no better (Cf. Romans 3:23, 5:12).  But by grace I’ve been saved (Cf. Ephesians 2:5).  It is important for me to keep this in mind lest I relate to others in a prideful and God-dishonoring way.  Do they do stupid things?  Do they walk in sin?  Do they take the devil’s side?  Do did I.  Are they lost?  So was I.  And the only reason I am any different now in any measure is because God has intervened in my life (Cf. 1 Corinthians 1:30).

Lost people don’t need our condemnation, they need the gospel.  To be sure, sharing the gospel demands that we address the issue of sin because the good news cannot be understood apart from the bad.  But it is important that we endeavor always to speak the truth in love—as Christ did (Cf. Ephesians 4:15).  We speak from a more compassionate place in our hearts when we remember our roots.  Someone has said that sharing the gospel can be compared to one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.  In the Bread of Life we have found One—the only One--who can fully meet our needs and satisfy our deepest longings (Cf. John 6:35).  He’s blessed us that we might prove to be a blessing to others.