The point of being spiritual is not to appear spiritual, but to be who Jesus saved you to become. He did not save you to give you a personality transplant or even a new lifestyle. He saved you to give you a new heart. He saved you from sin to righteousness, to live your life in a way that is conformed to Him, yet not in a way that is contrary to your personality. Jesus is not trying to squeeze you into a new, rigid mold and model. He is simply and profoundly living through you: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
It seems to me that many try to force “being spiritual”. They define new rules and boundaries for themselves and others based on things, people or ideas that, while they may be good, are in many ways different from who God created a particular person to be and what He has called them to do. One person is outgoing, an extrovert and a risk-taker, while another likes quiet, is an introvert and more cautious, but neither is more spiritual than the other based on those differences. It’s very easy for us to suggest that one person appears more spiritual than the other. But, again, based on what? What spiritual requirements are being met by the one that are not being met by the other? The way Jesus Christ lives in and through each of us WILL be different in its expression, though not in substance; in practice, though not in principle; in how He is building us up, though not in what the foundation is upon which we are built.
Immorality is clearly not “Christ who lives in me”. But is Christ living in one who leaves all for the mission field GREATER than Christ living in another who is living a quiet life and minding their own business (1 Thessalonians 4:11)? Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8). It is not our place to judge or measure how one Christian loves “the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30), nor how one loves another or, worse, if one loves “better” than another.
We cannot love our own spiritual image more than the image of Jesus. Remember, man looks on the appearance of things, but God does not (1 Samuel 16:7). Therefore, we should not project our spiritual growth and understanding onto others as the acceptable, expected norm. We must remember that God created each person in His image and differently. Once saved by the blood of Jesus, that person remains different as a Christian from other Christians in personality, yet becomes united with them in loving, worshipping and serving Jesus with all that they have and do. How Jesus is transforming and molding me, how I love Him and worship and serve Him, is NOT the litmus test for your spirituality, Christ-likeness, love, worship or service. And vice-versa!
Allow Jesus to change you and to live through you, and allow Him to change others and to live through them, even though He chooses to work with them differently than He has with you. Above all, be thankful.
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)
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