You Call Yourself A “Christian” ~ Earning Nothing

Greetings Dear Reader,

My Grandfather used to tell this story:

A man was sitting on his porch on his block in the cool of the evening.  It was his habit to do this every evening.  Many of the older people in his neighborhood did the same. 

A young fellow dressed in a nice suit came down the block.  He turned up the mans walk and stepped up onto the porch, smiled at the sitting man, and handed him a one-hundred-dollar bill.  Without a word he turned and walked away.  The young man repeated this action every day for thirty days.  No matter what the older man said the young man did not speak or interact. 

On the thirty-first day the young man walked down the block and passed the older man’s house.  He went to the next house on the block where an older widow sat knitting and sipping sweet tea.  The young man proceeded up her walk, handed her a one-hundred-dollar bill, and went on his way.  The older man yelled after him, “Hey!  Why are you giving her my one hundred dollars?”

One of the challenges of doing the things we do to follow Christ is that we begin to think we are earning something from him.  We think that we deserve something from God or that he owes us something.  This is never to be our motivation.

We cannot earn God’s favor because we already have it.  We must not put ourselves in the place where we think God owes us favor or merit.  This is only an exercise in futility.  First, we already have God’s favor.  He loves us in ways we cannot imagine.  He never mitigates his love when we do wrong.  He never increases it because we do right.

I must follow Christ for the sake of loving him.  I cannot begin to think I have earned or am owed anything.  I must only and always move with Christ out of love for him.  Anything else is a compromise of what I am commanded to be.  If I do good to earn God’s favor I am exercising futility.  I am taking the name of Christ for my own purposes. 

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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