Living in Christ

I feel that while you have a compassionate heart for the world at large, you are often very harsh on the people around you. Maybe you need to temper that and not be so quick to judge. There's always a reason why people do certain things, but it may not be the way you view it. You mustn't assume.

The words above came in an sms message to me from a very dear friend, following my handling of a personal issue involving my brother. These words led me to think that everyone has his blind spots, and that everyone wants everybody else, and the entire world, to be what he wants them to be. (Maybe not everyone but I certainly do).

I am very much guilty of that. I am often rigid in my views and hold high expectations of myself and others. Everything to me is black and white, right and wrong, straight and crooked, holy and unholy, true and false, as well as honest and dishonest.

I assume that a person will strive to do his best, that he will uphold high ethical and moral standards, and that if he is dealing with a grey area, his decision will be definitely an ethical one. For those into personality profile tests, this means that I score highly on the ethical and justice aspects. As for compassion, the poor and the underprivileged, especially children, hold a very special and big place in my heart. I firmly believe in transparency and openness; I passionately disdain duplicity and opaqueness.

The painful truth: I found out that the world does not function this way, and that most of the time, one lives in greyness. How do I live in Christ when I am living in greyness? This has been one of my biggest struggles of my Christian walk.

The world rewards strength; Christ honours weakness. The world craves ambition; Christ desires humility. The world seeks success stories; Christ pursues the downtrodden. The world dismisses consequences; Christ rejects wantonness. The world hoards wealth; Christ gathers souls. The world celebrates life present; Christ extols life everlasting.

The Bible bears a stern warning about the world:

1 John 2:15-17

Do Not Love the World

15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.


The bigger shock? That some of my life principles have shaped me into a person who is highly ethical, righteous and generally compassionate but who sadly hasn't really grasped the Christian value of mercy. And that sometimes, my words and actions do make me seem like a modern-day Pharisee. I have to learn to be more accepting of those who are very different from me in the way they act, the way they think, the way they speak, the way they judge, the way they love, the way they empathise and so on.

I still do need to kick myself once in a while just to remind myself that we do good works and we are to be holy in a grateful and heartfelt response to our salvation, not to chalk up brownie points to earn our salvation. And that there is no condemnation in Christ and that I shouldn't be too hard on myself and sweat the small stuff.

I thank God that He is working in me to shape me into His image. So forgive me because I'm still a work in progress in His hands.

My constant source of comfort through my Christian walk has been the truth that Christ is always with me now and till eternity. He has also given me the Holy Spirit, my Comforter and my Counsellor.

I wish I could say that my faith is rock-solid, but I do succumb to self-doubt and worries of the world. And often, the spiritual journey feels like a long-drawn "three steps forward and two steps back" slow dance.

Thank God that He loves me and He has saved me by His grace. That I do not have to strive and struggle in my works to earn salvation because He has done it all at the Cross of Calvary. And that He has accepted me, warts and all, a wretched sinner. Amen.

His crucifixion and His resurrection means that whoever believes in him as Lord and Saviour will enjoy everlasting life because Christ has fully paid the price for all of our wrongdoings and sins, and fully redeemed us from the wages of sin, which is death, and given us entry into His eternal kingdom.