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ReVision

Man under Orders

We don't have to live chaotic lives.

The Goodness of Jesus (5)

But Jesus said to him, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?”
Matthew 26.52-54

Pinballs or Plotters?
Most of us go through life bouncing between one of two approaches to how we use our time.

There are times when we feel like pinballs. We have been launched into the game of life, and we spend our days bouncing off obstacles, rolling through gates and portals, lighting up lights, racking up a score, and keeping an eye on the hole at the bottom of the game. We hope someone “up there” will be working the flippers to keep us in the game as long as possible.

We don’t feel like we have much control over things. We do what we have to do and react as best we can to the situations and circumstances that arise in our path, hoping we’re making the most of our time, but never quite sure.

At the same time, while we’re careening around on the game board of life, we fight against this tendency to feel out of control. We make plans, embrace disciplines and routines, and try not to waste time (not too much, at any rate). We hope to become something or somebody before our lives are through, so we nurture visions of ourselves which we focus on as we’re buffeted and banged about day by day.

We may have a clear sense of purpose and a desired direction for our lives, but stuff keeps getting in the way, knocking us off course, making us postpone our aspirations, rewriting our hopes and dreams, and frustrating any real sense of progress.

Meanwhile, each day we draw closer to the end of our lives, and we can’t help but wonder whether we’ll ever amount to anything at all.

An ordered life
The apostle John records a curious comment about Jesus’ earthly life which we do well to consider. Jesus and John indicated that an “hour” was coming that he and Jesus sometimes referred to as “His” hour (cf. Jn. 2.4; 7:30; 12.23, 27, 28; 13.1; 17.1). Jesus was focused on that hour as the end point of His earthly sojourn, that toward which His entire life was moving. He was under no illusions about what that hour held for Him, because it had been defined and determined for Him by His Father. He had embraced that hour and emptied Himself to become a Man so that He could fulfill it (Phil. 2.5-11).

And nothing could prevent Him from moving steadily and progressively toward that appointed time. Not the needs of others nor His own needs, and not even the plans and schemes of His enemies. His life followed an ordered course, and we get the sense, reading the gospels, that Jesus is always in charge of the goings-on of the moment.

Jesus’ life was ordered toward His God-appointed hour, and it was ordered by the Word of God in Scripture. In every situation in His life, Jesus resolved that “the Scriptures of the prophets must be fulfilled.” So immersed was He in the teaching of God’s Word that time and again the gospel writers would break in to their narrative to explain, “this was done to fulfill the Scriptures” or “as it is written in the prophets”. There was never a moment in Jesus’ life when He walked any path other than that revealed in the Law, Prophets, and Writings of the Old Testament. He insisted, “The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him” (Jn. 5.29). Those good works of the Law, which God foreordained for all who would believe in Jesus, Jesus fulfilled completely, every jot and tittle (Eph. 2.10; Matt. 5.17-19). Jesus was a Man under orders. His life was ordered by the Word of God, and He rejoiced, despite the difficulty of His journey, to know that at all times He was doing the will of the Father, and not merely His own will.

Order is good
God is a God of order, not chaos. Jesus lived an orderly life according to the teaching of God’s Word. The goodness of God is to be known and expressed in ordering our lives like Jesus did – on, by, under, and throughout according to the teaching of Scripture.

Scripture has been given to equip us for every good work (2 Tim. 3.15-17). It stands to reason that the more we order our lives – every aspect and moment of our lives – according to the teaching of God’s Word, the more our lives will refract the indwelling presence of Jesus, and the more the goodness of God will be seen in us.

But we must devote ourselves to learning the Word of God, letting it speak to all aspects of our lives. And we need to order the time and work of our lives as though God Himself were directing our steps at every moment (Ps. 9.12, 16, 17; Col. 3.23, 24). We need to keep a close watch on our lives, reviewing our progress daily, so that in all our thoughts, affections, words, deeds, and ways we are journeying the path God has revealed for us in His Word (Prov. 4.20-27).

We will not be able to eliminate the pinball effect entirely, but we can score big in life for the glory of God by ordering our lives like Jesus did, according to the Word of God, and for the glory of God in all we do.

For reflection
1.  Do you experience feeling like a pinball in life sometimes? Explain.

2.  Why is it imperative that Christians be constant and ever-deeper students of the Word of God?

3.  How should prayer and planning factor into our leading more ordered lives for the Lord?

Next steps – Conversation: How do your Christian friends order their lives for the Lord? Ask a few of them.

T. M. Moore

Why is the Law so important? How can we understand it? What use does it have in our daily lives? These questions and more are addressed in our brief book, The Ground for Christian Ethics. This could be the most important book you’ll read this year. Order your copy by clicking here. Order several copies, and read and discuss it with some friends.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
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