“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). This statement of Jesus is one that many take offence at. Because his claims are outright exclusive, authoritative and appear arrogant, people tend to resent him and Christianity for that. However, throughout his life, one thing Jesus never faltered on was his words. In fact, Jesus never came back on his word but stood by any claims he made no matter how ludicrous they sounded. He has always been confident in his identity and that showed in his actions. As the famous writer C.S. Lewis would argue in Mere Christianity, Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic or who he claimed to be which is God. Either you accept Jesus as the God he claims to be or you reject him as such. Moreover, as Lewis will continue in his argument, Jesus never claimed to be a moral teacher or a great human teacher therefore it is pure folly to accept him as something he never claimed to be and that is sadly the error many fall into. Many of us have an uneasiness about these exclusive claims of Jesus because they demand that we answer to him or that we face him and we are not ready. However, for those of us who have accepted Jesus as God and saviour, we take his claims seriously and know our allegiance is to him only. Our life mandate has changed and become this: to live for Christ and to be holy as the Lord is holy (1 Peter 1:16). Living our new mandate in this world will cause tensions as we have been warned in the Bible but we are called to stand firm. Often times, that life of pursuit of holiness seems unclear but I thank God for His word because He plainly articulates what He expects from us. God’s expectations became alive during this week as I read Psalm 101 which I believe should be the motto of every Christian. It is my hope that this post will push you to live the life that Christ expects from you.
Psalm 101 like many of the Psalms is one that was written by King David. We do not have a specific context for it nevertheless it is still à propos for the Christian in the twenty first century. What first struck me in that Psalm is how different it is from most of the Psalms as it begins with an action by the author. Often Psalms begin by a praise to the Lord, an adoration, or some sort of extolling of God but this one begins with “I will sing”. From the get go, we already see that is about what we must do and how we must live as Christians who love the Lord. The onus is on us to do something, not on God. These are not actions we do because we hope that we will receive salvation or anything from the Lord. Instead, we do them because we have been saved, we do them out of our love for our new master. So then, what does the Psalm encourage us to do? It encourages us to live a blameless life and be diligent in it. In this psalm, there are two main things that King David teaches us to do in order to pursue holiness: 1) worship the Lord; 2) ponder the way that is blameless. As we read the psalm, we see that the two main ideas are tackled in a practical way that touches our day-to-day life. First, King David calls us to sing of the Lord’s steadfast love and justice and to make music to Him (Psalm 101:1). How we express our love and adoration to the Lord is in big part through our singing. Our Father in heaven dwells in the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3) and it is to Him we should ascribe glory, majesty and power. Our first action in our quest for holiness is to worship the Lord. Even though it is something we do, we know that God gives us the grace and enables us to be able to sing to Him or to want to sing to him (Philippians 2:13). Indeed, the righteous should begin everything with God. When we sing to the Lord and praise His Name, we are focused on God, who He is, His majesty, might, glory, and more. God takes the place He should and we see our smallness. The quest for holiness starts with God. That is why we look to Him, we search Him, we seek Him. When we seek Him we have the promise that He will be found (Jeremiah 29:13). The psalm also teaches us that God is found where there is blamelessness which brings us to the second action we are called to do: “ponder the way that is blameless” (Psalm 101:2). How many of us take time to “ponder” about the way of the righteous? To ponder means to think deeply about, not just one time but over and over again until one is clear. The one who ponders is diligent about the object of his “pondering”. He or she wants to know what it is all about. In this case, when we ponder, we seek to understand what a righteous life is; we seek to understand and know the ways of the Lord and the more we understand them, the more we apply them in our daily life. How is the blameless life lived out? It begins in the individual’s heart and then flows out into community or society. First, we see that King David says “I will walk with integrity of heart within my house; I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless” (verse 2-3). The one who lives righteously looks internally first. He or she checks his or her heart first before God. There must not be found any lie, any double-mindedness in them. The character of the righteous should be excellent and that includes ensuring that what they look at, what they watch is not “worthless” or “vile”. I wonder, how often do you consider the worthlessness of what you set your eyes on before you set your eyes on it? We often ensure that what we watch does not have debauchery in it, or immorally but worthlessness in my opinion takes it up a notch. It makes me think of the word in Philippians that encourages us to think about whatever is true, honourable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent and praise-worthy (Philippians 4:8). As Philippians calls us to think of such things, I believe the same can be extrapolated and said of what we set our eyes on. Our pursuit of holiness starts in our heart and permeates through our body and into how conduct. God is not just concern about parts of us but all of us. He requires that all of us be submitted to Him. This includes the way we communicate with one another, it should elevate Christ and not diminish him. Our actions must show that we are obedient to Christ. Therefore pride should not be found in our eyes, in our heart; slander should not dwell where we are; deceit should not be around us, and lies should not be among us. This means, we must make every effort to live by the way that is blameless. That is why it is imperative for us Christians to spend time in the word of God daily – day and night and submit to it. We must learn what righteousness looks like, we cannot assume we know. Finally, persevering in the way that is blameless make us like Christ. Because we are planted in the Lord and seek to please Him alone, we are only interested now in the things of the Lord. The more we behold Christ, the easier it is for us to recognize anything that is not Christ-like. As the psalm says “I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me” or “a perverse heart shall be far from me; I will know nothing of evil” or again “whoever slanders his neighbour secretly I will destroy” (Psalm 101:3-5). The importance the psalm puts on preserving one’s integrity cannot be mistaken. The psalmist is diligent, rigid and violent in ensuring he is not compromised by anything that is worthless. This is the attitude we too should have. Even if it means being a public enemy, losing comfort, family and friend, we ought to be ready. The preservation of one’s integrity according to the word will ruffle some feathers like neighbours or the society at large. It is our duty to ensure those who are likeminded walk alongside us. We should be surrounded by the faithful, the one that speaks the truth, ones that are filled with the Spirt and display his fruits. Our pursuit of holiness changes us and as we change, so does our environment.
Therefore, know that your mandate as a Christ follower is to be obedient to him. Part of that obedience is for you to honour him by living the life that he desires for you. It is not a life of complacency or comfort but it is a life filled with his presence even in the midst of trials. The stakes are high, we no longer belong to this world so that the world can no longer dictate how we live our life, the King of kings has paid the price for our sins and given us this new life for His glory and our good. May the Lord strengthen us to live unashamedly for Him. Amen.
A Word Aptly Spoken 