A SHARED LIFE WITH JESUS IS ALSO A SHARED MISSION WITH HIM
November 12, 2017 2023-04-05 19:11A SHARED LIFE WITH JESUS IS ALSO A SHARED MISSION WITH HIM
A SHARED LIFE WITH JESUS IS ALSO A SHARED MISSION WITH HIM
No one is a follower of Jesus if he has not—in the fullest sense—entered this new life with God. No man can ever share his life with God and remain the same. His life would reflect an overflow of God’s love. God’s love, according to Rauschenbusch, “flow[s] out, naturally and without effort, into all relations of his life and reconstructs everything that it touches.” Thus, whoever hinders the reconstructive power of a relationship with God in the context of social relations and institutions of mean contradicts the Master’s faith.
If we want to operate according to Jesus’ true intentions, his truest aims, then we must watch him in his relation to his own times. We must see how he acted. As a proof, Jesus did not speak abstract messages, although for some, it may seem that he did. However, if we really listened with our ears to what Jesus said, we would realize that he spoke about the social issues of his time; he was responding to the chaos of the life that of the environment he was in. He was not detached from what was going on around him.
In the same way, we must follow Jesus’ example: he adjusted to the tendencies of the time, in his affinity for some men and repulsion of others. We see this even in modern day politics, don’t we? Jesus linked himself closely to John. He even said, “The law and the prophets were in effect until John came; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone tries to enter it by force” (Luke 16:16 NRSV).
John was viewed by society as an incarnation of the spirit of the ancient prophets in society. He shared the ancient prophet’s fearlessness, their direct speech, and their consciousness of speaking God’s message. The old prophets had this commanding demand for ethical obedience. John was like this.
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What is your role in this shared mission with Jesus?