As I pulled the car around onto the familiar S-curved side street by the school, my two boys jumped out and ran toward the front door. All of a sudden, I had this strange pang of emotions run through me. It was a contrast between joy, irony, and nostalgia. I realized in an instant that I had taken for granted the simple act of dropping off youngsters at school. Who would have thought that this little action could have meant so much? I remember so often lamenting about not really having time to get there and back in the mornings because of my job. Those complaints seemed silly now.
The apostle Paul is really good at clarifying things in the New Testament. In many of his epistles, the reader is left wondering things like, "oh yeah, why didn't I think of it that way?" He tends to put things in a way that brings silly complaints to light.
If we look at Ephesians 2:11-13, it says, "Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called 'uncircumcised' by those who call themselves 'the circumcision' (which is done in the body by human hands) - remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ."
I believe that Paul here is exhorting the church in Ephesus to remain humble, and not get cocky when it comes to living Godly lives. And this advice goes for everyone, even two-thousand years later. We dare not take our salvation or inclusion in the divine family for granted. If it weren't for God's son coming to Earth on a rescue mission for you and I, we would still be lost in our sins.
Recall that during this time-frame (and prior to the arrival of Jesus) the Jewish religious sect often considered the Gentiles (people of non-Jewish birth) as somehow lower or less pure than themselves. In the same way that it would be frowned upon for a Samaritan to spend time with a Jew back then, they viewed the Gentile people as lacking the one true faith tradition. You can imagine what happened when Paul began to argue in the Synagogues that regular people were loved by God just as much as the religious elect. He wasn't always popular.
And nowadays, some people have 'paid it forward' with this type of religious aristocracy. But instead of the traditional religious Jew versus the Gentile, it is now the Christian zealot versus the unbeliever. In other words, some in the church today flaunt their religious knowledge as a weapon, designed to belittle or talk down to those who don't yet know Jesus. Same situation, different era. We must not take the inclusion provided to us by God for granted by holding it over someone else's head. This doesn't show the love of Jesus, and it isn't what God meant when He said that love sums up all of the prophets and commandments. We don't deserve God's grace any more than we can earn our own salvation. Therefore, there is no impetus for arrogance.
What a world it would be, if we could divorce personal pride and status from religious fortitude. If we could advertise God by way of a personal relationship with His son, instead of the rule book mentality. Contained in the pages of the Bible resides both grace and verisimilitude, as well as edicts and commandments. And I love God for this by the way. It seems almost as if the Bible was constructed in just such a way so that if anyone reading it began to feel a bit overconfident about obeying the law, then the next page all of a sudden emphasizes faith instead. Likewise, if we become too conceded about our faith walk, then it won't be long before we stumble across a Scripture that remind us that works matter also.
Well school will be back in session at some point I would assume, whether that will consist of returning to a physical building or not. Perhaps it will be half and half - some remote learning and some classroom work also? At any rate, I will try never again to take for granted the simple act of dropping off my boys at the S-curve again. Pretty soon they will be in high school anyway, and then before I know it, I will be sitting in the bleachers on graduation day.
Don't take God for granted, nor your relationship with His son either. You were purchased at great cost Scripture says, but trust me ... you didn't earn your way into grace (and neither did I). We are brought near to God by the blood of Christ. It is a gift, and if we are wise we will accept it. Things have a tendency to go better when we listen to God, especially in the spiritual sense. And when we really understand the sacrifice part of our Christian heritage, then pride and arrogance will have no quarter with us. We will take nothing for granted.
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