Get It Quickly!

The apostle Paul realized that a believer’s joy in the Lord is a safeguard, and he was willing to teach believers even if it meant saying the same things over and over again (Philippians 3:1). His willingness to patiently repeat himself forces me to examine how I react when I and other Christians don’t get “it” the first time. Our culture quickly demands perfection of anyone who bears the label of “Christian,” and we in the body of Christ are not much better. Get a confession, slap the label on and voila! Perfection! Unfortunately, that’s a totally unrealistic view of a Christian’s walk with God. Leaving behind the past and the sins that trip us up is not so easy, as the writer of Hebrews points out: “. . . . let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (NASB, 12:1b). Running a race or a marathon is hard work, and Paul uses this analogy comparing a Christian’s walk with a race several times in the New Testament. In I Cor.1:9:24-25, Paul uses the analogy of a race in urging the Corinthian believers to exercise self-control because the reward at the end of the race (eternal life) was far better than a perishable wreath: “Run in such a way that you may win,” he said. Paul said that our walk requires focus and effort and discipline (vs. 25-26) because living as Christ did in a world filled with sin is terribly difficult. If it were easy, we wouldn’t have needed a savior! Paul urged every believer he had contact with (and through letters many more that he never saw) to participate in the race, and he continued to do this until his race was finished. In II Tim. 4:7, he wrote, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course; I have kept the faith,” and his reward was a crown of righteousness (vs. 8). If running the race was difficult for Paul, who was completely sold out for Christ, what makes me think that it should be easy for me or anyone else who bears the name of Christ to get it right the first time and each time thereafter? I am to be transformed into the likeness of Christ “with ever-increasing glory” (NIV, II Cor. 3:18) and my faith is to increase as well (II Thess. 1:3), which says to me that it is more of an incremental process than a sudden, complete transformation. If my focus is on running my own race successfully, and I am “transformed by the renewing of my mind” as I “present [my] body as a living and holy sacrifice” (NASB, Rom. 12:2), I will find joy in the Lord and will be patient with others who are running their races.