It would be a horrible mistake to live by a code that only seeks self-gratification. Likewise, believing our faith is something we earn between ourselves and God is horribly incorrect. The reason why is because when we live by such a code, there is nothing and nobody good enough or perfect enough to warrant being involved with. Simply said, there wouldn’t be a single person in this world whom would be worth OUR time, energy and efforts. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. (Romans 14:7-8 ESV) In this letter to the Church in Rome, Christians were finding themselves unable to accept one another because of each other’s perceived “weaknesses” and/or “preferences.” Meaning that the OCD thing that the person at your church does that annoys you and drives you crazy, was the reason that this church in Rome was finding as the reason for division. Honestly, this is the reason we find it difficult to live for something more than just ourselves. If God lived for Himself, would he have given up His Son Jesus? What if, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus chose not to die on the cross for our sins, would we even be alive in the state of grace by which we currently live? The answer is an emphatic, “no.” We wouldn’t be alive in this current state of grace. Most of us, if we are truly honest about our own wretchedness, would be broken down somewhere hiding in between the shadows of shame without God finding us worth His intervention. If Jesus, our Lord and Savior lived a life, not for his own sake, but for the sake of people like you and me that don’t deserve the inheritance of an awesome God, then why would we fool ourselves into believing that we can live just for our own selves? Shouldn’t we take charge and be responsible for the people who were given to us by God in our lives? You don’t live for yourself, stop acting like you do. Start taking responsibility for the people God placed around you.
