by Mr. Titus Menezes
1 Peter 2:16
As servants of God, live as free people; yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil.
The verse that we have this evening for our reflection is from 1 Pt 2:16 – as servants of God, live as free people. The prayer group has aptly termed it as making godly choices.
The first part of our statement - as servants i.e. as ministers of Christ, live as a free people. I guess all political parties have adapted this statement – as ministers of a political party, live as free people. The moment you get into power, you know what happens out there. Do whatever you want freely – loot, steal, murder, hoard and so on. You have the full backing of the party should anything go wrong. The world we live today is a self-righteous world. It’s a free world and we can do what we like even if it means harm to other.
But the Word of God makes it clear to us. That because you have become ministers of Christ, do not use that power you receive from High to do things your way. Well you may say we have long given up our evil ways and we walk in God’s way and so is what I think of myself. I will place before you a few instances from the Bible and let you take a check of your lives.
We all think and believe that having had that personal encounter with the Lord; we are walking in godly ways. We have consciously made a choice not to do the evil things. We make every effort atleast to keep from the things of the world.
At creation itself, God gave Adam and Eve a free will. He showed them the tree that they should not eat of but He still left the tree in the garden. He could have very well removed it but He wanted to give man a free will to choose. So choosing between good and evil was a choice. We can see very well from this story that man is never satisfied and he wants to have more good for himself. By eating a fruit they were not breaking any of the 10 commandments in a way. They could have chosen to obey what their creator had told them but they fell for the created.
This is the free will God has given man and this is what Peter is talking about. We are a new creation and now we have a better understanding of good and evil. Earlier, many of things which were evil, we considered good. Peter is asking us not to fall in the same trap as Adam and Eve.
Even today, as an awakened people, we have choices to make – choices that will draw us closer to God or otherwise, to have blessings or its absence.
Right from the moment we wake up till we hit bed, we have choices to make – what breakfast to make, what we will wear what mode of transport to use, what food we will eat, where we will go. These are the small ones but there are major choices we need to make – schooling, employment, marriage, family, housing etc. Some choices work in our favour and make us happy, some don’t and we rue the choice we made.
“I do not believe in taking the right decision, I take a decision and make it right.” – Muhammad Ali Jinnah – make it right at what cost? It sticks to you.
Someone has well written, every time you make a choice you are changing the central part of you that chooses into something different than what it was before. And if we take our whole life and the innumerable choices we have to make we are slowly turning our life into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature – one that is in harmony with God, self and others or one that is in a state of war against God, self and others.
How do we make a choice?
Some of us are used to gut feeling, impulsive. Without much thought, I felt I had to act this way. There are others who weigh the pros and cons and then make a choice.
Choice is revealed in the action we see on the outside. Take the example of an alcoholic. He decides to give up his drinking. What do we see on the outside – a more sober person, no visits to the bar or the shop! His external actions and speech reveals he no longer drinks.
How did this change happen? Something happened on the inside which is not visible to any person on the outside. We do not know whether he has given up drinking permanently or a short period. All we know at this moment he is not the same as before. This is because he has brought his free will into subjection.
What drives the will?
Two things – the mind and the emotion influence the will. Emotions are gathered from our past life – our subconscious mind – the seat of memory – everything is stored up there and based on our good or bad experiences. We have both of these. Nobody loves me, I want somebody to love me and then we look for somebody to love us and our will is fired up.
The other way the will is influenced is through the mind. I see somebody whom I know in love and so I decide I should try it out. And so again my will is fired up and we take the appropriate action. Check it out in your own lives. Our emotions too are built on what the mind supplies. And the mind is supplied by the eye.
Matthew 6:22-23 - "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! (NRSV)
The eye is the lamp of the body and everything that is within. What we see is picked up by the mind and certain things get absorbed into our memories which will have an effect on our future actions. The eye is the expression of the mind. You can tell the state of the person by looking into the eye.
See how media and advertisers play on your life – they show and promise something good – give your child this – his health, his grades etc will improve and your emotions are moved for your child and you act – you purchase that product. So what you see influences your mind which in turn fires your will and the will in turn governs your actions.
The bible tells us to have the mind of Christ. In Philippians 2:5 - Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus as well as in 1 Cor 2:16 But we have the mind of Christ. How does this help us?
Can you stop your eyes from seeing what is happening around you, what the media throws up at you? No! But your mind can prevent it from having a negative effect on your life. When you have the mind of Christ, it is a filter that crushes all the unwanted influences on your life. Your will is no longer controlled by the spirit of the world but by the Lord. You still have a choice between good and not so good and you can act. This is why inner healing – the healing of memories is so very important – so that your past experiences do not drive your will in the wrong direction. Both the mind and the emotion have to be subject to Christ.
I will place before you a story from the bible itself to better explain what I have just said. You apply it to every area of your life - the story of Abraham and Lot! You all know it Gen 13 onwards. Both were very rich and they were now in the land of Canaan and there came a situation where there was constant fighting between the herders of Abraham and Lot. Abraham was not too happy with this and said to Lot lets separate as there is enough land for both of us. God had promised Abraham the entire land but he was generous enough to accommodate Lot. He allowed Lot to make the first choice. 2 Pt 2:7 calls Lot a righteous man.
Genesis 13:10-11 - Lot looked about him, and saw that the plain of the Jordan was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. So Lot chose for himself all the plain of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward; thus they separated from each other. (NRSV)
Lot looked – with what? His eyes and then he chose for himself all the plain of Jordan. Humanly speaking it was not a tough decision to make. Who among us if we were given an option, not choose like Lot? The plain of Jordan was well watered hence fertile and lush green and Sodom & Gomorrah were beautiful, rich cities.
So Lot took a shrewd decision or so it seems in going eastward. But his decision went horribly wrong as we read over the next few chapters. Though righteous, his true character was revealed in his choice. Let’s see what we can pick up from this incident when we are faced with choices:
Greed & selfishness – however righteous and blameless we may call ourselves, our true character is revealed in some way. Self-interest and greed drove Lot’s decision. These flaws of Lot were never seen before and they surfaced when a choice had to be made. Abraham should have been the first to choose because he had the authority of an elder and it was promised to him by none other than the Lord.
Lot desired the best of the land and the wealthiest cities. Gen 10 gives us more insight into the life of Lot. God sent his two angels in the form of men to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for their sins. They warned Lot about it and told him to gather his family and leave. But Lot lingered Gen19v16 and so these angels had to seize Lot and his family and bring them out of the city. Even then Lot was not ready to leave the place. The next day the city was burnt down including everything that grew in the fertile land. Lot’s wife turned behind and she turned into a pillar of salt.
Why Lot a righteous man hesitate to listen to God’s messengers? The answer is very simple. He could not leave his possessions, his wealth, his home, his business behind to be destroyed. After all he had set it up himself, it was his efforts. He had gained the whole world in other words. Who would want to?
We can see in these passages the greed and selfishness of a righteous Lot. You will always find weeds among the wheat. No matter if you have God experience and you will set your focus on godly things, satan will always pop up one way or the other to steal your joy.
Lust – when Lot lifted his eyes and saw the plains of Jordan and the cities, he was not looking at it for its beauty value. He was looking beyond; he was using his calculative mind. If there is water, we all know, you can do anything. Lot would be planting, reaping and sowing. Cattle would have grazing fields. Sodom & Gomorrah had wealthy people, so business would be booming. We can see the lust for wealth and prosperity. Life would be so much easy!
He knew the people out there did not follow his religion and they were a perverse people. He did not follow their religion but he was definitely affected by their low moral standards. When the people of S&G came and asked for the visiting men, Lot said take my daughters. How could a father offer his daughters? Wasn’t he affected by the morality of the place? His children too were affected. We read his daughters bore children through him – Moab & Edom. Lot chose the place; God did not give it to him. Lot valued wealth and prosperity. What we value is what we will go after.
There is story in the OT of Achan when Jericho had fallen. God commanded through Joshua that you should not take anything from the city of Jericho else Israel would face destruction. When Jericho was conquered, Achan could not contain his desire and he brought wrath on the Israelites camp. 36 of them fell to the enemy. Achan was found out to be the disobedient one and this is what he said Joshua 7:21 - when I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, then I coveted (desired) them and took them. They now lie hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath."(NRSV)
I have come across people who have lifted their eyes just the way Lot did and found themselves in misery. One is standing before you. Staying on in a place when God wanted me to move on…
Want a particular community GOOD boy or girl. This is the person I will marry. I am walking God’s ways, I am not on the path of sin but I cannot trust God with any area of my life. I know better than God. I know what is good for me, my family.
Abraham too was in such a situation. God had promised him and Sarah that they would have a child, they waited but when it did not happen, they took the decision into their hands. Enter Hagar and Ishmael is born and you know the prophecy of him - he will be like a wild ass. God eventually blessed A&S with Isaac through whom He would bless mankind. God had to tell Abraham to send away Hagar and Ishmael. They cannot co-exist.
When we take things into our hands thinking we know well, an Ishmael is always born – a fruit of the flesh – a constant grappling with pain and misery but when we wait on the Lord, the fruit of the Spirit is seen – joy, peace and happiness.
Matthew 6:24 - "No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. (NRSV)
Understand this verse. It is God and wealth, not God and devil. So we are not even talking of sins here. Matthew is referring to something that is slowly eating into our lives, something which gradually and eventually becomes our focus.
God’s principles are very simple – OBEY & PROSPER, DISOBEY & PERISH. Read Leviticus 26 to know more about blessing for obedience and curses for disobedience.
How do we go about making choices, godly choices?
- Continual prayer life. Get to that stage where you can hear from the Lord. The Bible has plans & promises and these are for all. What is the Lord’s specific plan for your life? If you do not hear you know where the problem is, it is definitely not God. God has to reveal His plan to you.
- Wait on the Lord for a word from the Lord or a need that you have. Seek discernment from people spiritually active. As humans, we are impatient and even I have this question when Lord when? It gets frustrating but the Lord will open doors. We sing God will make a way but you should also know He is making the way. Never take a decision when you are Hungry Angry Lonely Trial
1 Cor 2:9-10 But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him"-- these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.(NRSV)
- Seek confirmation from the Lord – certain things are very clear but there are many things and major decisions which needs confirmation. How do you know it is the Lord himself who has spoken and not some of your own desire or even the evil one
- Ex 4 - Moses had a command from God to go to Pharaoh and ask for deliverance of the Israelites. He asked who am I and why should the people believe that the Lord has sent me – throw you staff to the ground and it turned into a snake, pick it up by its tail and it turned back to the staff
- Judges 6:36-38 Then Gideon said to God, "In order to see whether you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said, I am going to lay a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said." And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water.(NRSV)
- Luke 3 Look at Mary at the annunciation – she was not given a choice of motherhood. You will be bear a son… but the angel confirmed this message – your cousin Elizabeth who was considered….. and it ends with a strong message – nothing is impossible with God.
- Acts 10 Cornelius & Peter’s dream
This is where we put to use the gift of counsel or right judgment.
- Act accordingly – in faith we have to step out and do what God has asked us to do. Many of us develop cold feet and do nothing about it. Doing nothing is also a choice which is not godly. Remember one thing God never loses. It’s only we.
Here we need to activate the gift of courage. If you read the bible no one at the first instance received God’s word and began to work. They all had questions and objections as to why they were not the right person for the job. But God knows why he is calling you and not someone else and He will confirm the call.
Making godly choices does not happen accidentally or automatically. It is waiting on the Lord and obeying His instructions on a day to day basis. And we can only obey if faith is continually rising. I know in my own life the Lord is raising the bar to make me depend more and more on Him than on my own capabilities.
Lets pray that the lord may help us make the right choices in our life… have the right discernment in all areas of our lives… be it in our home, ministry, workplace, school, college, wherever we go and in whatever we do…