REALISM

One of the odd irregularities of believing in Christ is that the greatest realist in history was turned into the greatest idealist. Jesus’ realism was so amazing that believers did not know what to do with it. They knew they had to act on it or reject it but could not bring themselves to do either, so they found a way to do both. They learned a way to abide in Christ and continue in the old manner of living. He was made into an ideal; something that would be lived someday but not now. They satisfied a sense of loyalty to a higher calling while living in the realm of lower standards. Jesus was put on a cross of irrelevance for today but of significance for tomorrow.

Many have adopted abiding with Christ as an ideal, something beyond this life, operative now only in small ways. The result? Abundant life is limited and marginalized.

What is misunderstood is that this idealism is nothing more than concealed materialism; the present becomes divorced from the future. Abiding in Christ is relegated to a future hope and thought spiritual, while daily living remains present and controlled by the material.

Jesus was incredibly real, but people have made faith in him an ideal. When he said to love your neighbor as yourself, most made this a future goal, an ideal. But Jesus meant it to be real, to live like this now. He was telling us this is the only way that life will really work. If our lifestyle remains self-centered, we are committing collective and individual suicide, and the world falls apart from our failure to live out this truth. Sincere love for others can only begin with those who first love the God of sacrificial love.

Jesus also said we are to lose ourselves to find ourselves. This is not idealism; it is realism, one of the basics of real life. When we lose ourselves, abiding in Christ merges the present with the future and becomes realistic. Until believers humble themselves, the realism others must see is only idealized, and the world grows increasingly chaotic. The time is past due for lovers of God to live in real faith. He merged the present with the future and abiding in Christ demands we do the same.

“Lord, save us from any misguided ideals about faith that act like heroin, distorting reality and causing us to evade truth and responsibility.”