I work in the insurance field, specifically insurance claims. It is a complicated line of work, requiring adherence to state regulations, legal precedents, and Best Practices. We are required by law to have a certain number of Continuing Education Credits each year in order to keep our licenses current.
I work with a woman who is a hard worker and is technically correct nearly 100% of the time. She must have a photographic memory, because she can quote things that she heard in CE classes from years before. She can even quote things that her Manager said months ago. But she is very impatient, especially with her coworkers.
This woman gets frustrated at co-workers who need to be reminded constantly of the Best Practices and the laws governing our profession. She complained to me last week, saying, "I know our team knows how to do this procedure, because I gave them a handout on it last year." She doesn't seem to understand, or care, that some people don't have a photographic memory. Or maybe they forget how to do a procedure if they haven't done it in awhile. She doesn't stop to think that our job is very complicated, requiring a knowledge of medicine, law, accounting, surveillance and common sense. She doesn't realize that we work with people, and that people are not perfect.
So I asked her last week. "Lee, why do you think your Preacher wants you to go to church every Sunday? He's already told you how to be saved; you've already heard how to live a godly life. What is the point of going all the time? Isn't it because sometimes we forget? Isn't it because we need to be constantly reminded of what the Lord has done for us, and what we should do in return? Living the Christian life is complicated, requiring a knowledge of morals, theology, doctrine, eschatology and missions."
The Apostle Paul knew that people needed constant reminding. Paul wrote letters to the churches that he had started, encouraging them to remember his teachings. These letters give us some idea of his preaching, and of the messages that he brought to the people. A good example of this is I Thessalonians 4.1-12:
Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not to passionate lust like the heathens, who do not know God; and in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gave you His Holy Spirit. Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more. Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
Even after a rousing sermon by the great Apostle Paul, people would go back to their old habits. Even after working side by side with him in church planting and ministry, after he left they would always tend to return to their old sinful natures. It is the same with me. It was the same with Israel, the followers of Moses.
The Israelites weren't just in the presence of a great Man of God (Moses); they weren't just in the presence of a great communicator (his brother Aaron); they had an encounter with God Himself. Exodus 19.10-11 says, "And the Lord said to Moses, 'Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day, because on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.' " When God came down in the sight of the people of Israel, everyone in the camp trembled with fear. What an awesome encounter!
Yet 40 days later, while Moses was up on the mountain getting the law of God and writing down all His regulations, they called out to Aaron to make them an idol in the shape of a calf, made of gold. They offered burn sacrifices to this idol, and had a feast. After they ate, they all got up and engaged in salacious revelry. Just 40 days removed from trembling in the very presence of God, and they were ready to not only forget God, but to sacrifice to a golden calf and engage in a sexual orgy, like the pagan fertility rites of other peoples that God would later ask them to destroy.
That's what happens to us if we stop seeking God's face. It is easy to miss church a couple of Sundays in a row. It is even easier to slip into old speech patterns, using profane and even obscene words and phrases. It is in our nature to begin longing for ill-gotten gain, lounging in slothful situations, and lusting after sexual images or encounters. I don't know if you have ever clicked on the links on the upper right hand column of this blog. The top one is a depiction of God using a chisel to mold a Christian into His image. He starts by removing some minor sins, but when He starts to remove the sin of Lust, the Christian says, "I don't have a problem with Lust--I can do it whenever I want!" Then the Christian wants God to take a break, and stop all of the chiseling away at his sins. In a way, the Christian wants to hold on to some of his sins for awhile, particularly the sin of Lust.
I confess I struggle with this often. But like the actors in the linked video, I ultimately want God to make me more like Himself; I want to be conformed to the image of His Son. The video reminds us that God desires fellowship with us, but He cannot abide the sin in our lives. We were created for fellowship with God, but we have this unholy attachment to specific sins. This is what Paul meant when he wrote that we must take up our cross daily to follow Him. Each day we must sacrifice what stands between us and Holy God, so that we can be holy like Him.
Thank God He doesn't treat us like we treat Him. He doesn't forget us. He doesn't forsake us. He never comes to us after awhile and asks, "OK, what did I miss?" He never rolls His eyes and sighs at us, like my impatient co-worker, thinking, "I've already told them this--why is this still a problem?" Lamentations 3.23 says "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness!"
We will never be wholly like Him. But we are God's workmanship, his beloved creation. He desires fellowship with us. And deep in our heart of hearts, we want fellowship with Him, too. We just have to set aside our pet sins so we can truly follow Him with all of our hearts, minds, souls and strength. This is what Jesus called the greatest command of God.
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