By Not Known
One of the questions that was asked a couple of Sundays ago was ”Do we as Christians believe in Christ and the Gospel?” And it was established that to do so has implications on both believers and non-believers. It would also impact the entire community by way of our relationship with them. In a way, we might say that the Gospel in the New Testament is simply that “Jesus is Lord.” But as soon as we make that claim, we have to say who Jesus is and how He became Lord, and that is what the story of the Gospel is about.
When we say Jesus is Lord, we mean Lord of everything. However, this claim sometimes degrades the Gospel from the Lord of everything into the Lord ofanything. And there is a subtle difference.
Does Jesus being Lord make us feel better inside every time?
Does it make us want to pursue more education to be responsible adults?
Does it keep us from smoking, drinking, or taking drugs?
Does it make us want to wait till we are married to have sex or to vilify anyone who does not believe in the same God as we do?
Jesus being the Lord of the world may mean a lot of things. Fundamentally, it should empower us to relate with one another through how God’s love impacts us in our relationship with Him. The resurrection brings peace with God and with one another. And when we love one another, we reveal that we are indeed Christ’s disciples (Jn 13:34-35).
This love for one another embodies God’s love that was demonstrated on the Cross. It is the source of our ability to love one another and therefore to live the life of the Gospel. This is what it really means to profess Jesus as Lord.
In real life then, it should influence the way we relate with both fellow believers within the body as well as those outside of our faith. We need to consider how our church ministries convey the Gospel as a living story in teaching and practice; from our Sunday school to youth ministry to our evangelistic teams ministering both locally as well as overseas. It should also influence our hospitality to visitors, our understanding of people walking by outside our church soaking in the message on our banners. It should influence how we respond and react to our colleagues when we get into our offices on weekdays or how we greet our relatives whom we have not seen for a long time during festive seasons. It should also influence the way we respond to viral messages on the internet that sometimes become more influential than mainstream news. It should help us relate with people of differing ideas or philosophies of life or sexual persuasions, that could potentially isolate us from ministering to them instead of drawing them to Christ.
Fundamentally, each of us should know God’s word deep enough to help bring answers that build bridges instead of walls in our relationship with other people. This will enable us to truly profess that Jesus is Lord of our lives.
Peter Poon