Living a transformed life not only results in a beautiful eternal life in Heaven, but also a better life on Earth. That isn’t to say all Christian lives are perfect and conflict-free. We will always have to face trials and tribulations; in Matthew 16:24, Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” And in Corinthians 11, Paul detailed the torture he had suffered because of his Christianity. But in spite of the hardships, living a transformed life will give us peace, joy, purpose, and hope.
What qualities should we exhibit, regardless of our circumstances? God desires humility, meekness, repentance, and compassion—qualities completely foreign to the Roman culture of Jesus’ time. We live in a world so profoundly transformed by Christianity, it’s hard to imagine a place where ‘take care of widows and orphans’ and ‘turn the other cheek’ are radical mandates. But in some ways, they’re still strange to us. For someone especially spiritual or philosophical, the good life—eudaimonia, in Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics—looks a lot like what Jesus preached: goodness to others for the sake of others, a gentle spirit, love of God. But even Christians fall for worldly examples of the good life. We want to be wealthy, respected, and admired. We want people to see how great we are, the good things we’re doing, how holy and blessed we’ve been. It’s the same attitude Jesus warned us about in Matthew 6: “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
In John 14:15, Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Which commandments are those? “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40). What does it mean to love our neighbor as ourselves? Should we get up early to shovel their driveways? Always have a cup of sugar ready if they run out? In the New Testament church, loving your neighbor, your fellow Christians, was difficult, because the church was made up of a wide range of people: gentiles, Jews, Greeks, widows, the wealthy, the poor. And it was hard for those early Christians to put aside their cultural and ethnic practices when trying to follow Jesus. Should they avoid unclean meat? Be circumcised? Should Christians be like Jews? Should Jews stop following the law? Their old baggage weighed them down. But Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia, where some of those arguments were worst, saying, “Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love….For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another” (Galatians 5:2-6, 13-15).
It's clear that loving our neighbor means overlooking vast—but ultimately harmless—differences, to treat them exactly as we would someone just like us. When we love someone first, it doesn’t feel like a burden. Obeying God’s commands and keeping love for our brothers aren’t burdens when they are our priorities. Real love is about more than just not doing evil; real love actively seeks the well-being of others. Romans 13:8-10: “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”
God transformed his covenant with us. Hebrews 8:8-12: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” And we ought to have a similar transformation in ourselves; “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2). God’s mercy starts the change, we act as a living sacrifice because of God’s mercy, and we are transformed.
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