The gap between my head and my heart

Posted on March 7, 2018 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

One of the dangers of growing up in the church is that I often lose perspective on how radical Jesus’ teaching is. Even a casual reading of the Sermon on the Mount reveals that following Jesus should move us into a different lifestyle category.

Jesus said things like “love your enemies (Matthew 5:44)” and “do not resist an evil person (Matthew 5:39).” Jesus encourages us to throw parties for those who cannot pay us back (Luke 14:13-14). He calls us to take up our cross every day (Luke 9:23), a call to abandon self-will and seek God’s leading.

Jesus spoke these words to a people who were being oppressed by their Roman overlords. Jesus spoke these words to a people who had a long history of ethnic hatred (which continues today in the Middle East). Jesus spoke these words to people with a rigid understanding of what it meant to follow the law of God. Jesus spoke these words to people who used religion as a means of achieving their own desires.

Jesus spoke these words to people who are a lot like me and probably a lot like you.

The problem is that I can maintain an intellectual understanding of Jesus’ teaching while I fail to live it out. I can easily rationalize the gap between what my head understands and what I choose to live out.

I can acknowledge that Christ requires me to go the second mile while I am complaining about having to go the first. I can acknowledge that I am required to love my enemy even while I am speaking ill of him. I can acknowledge that God cares about every sparrow that dies even while I am stressing out over my circumstances.

This is where a proper understanding of the Gospel helps. The gospel teaches me that I am deeply flawed but more deeply loved.

The deeply flawed part is the reason why I will never be able to live out Christ’s commands on my own. I have a seemingly infinite ability to rationalize my wrong behavior and without the intervention of God in my life, I would continue on the same path.

But God gives me resources to change the trajectory of my life. He gives me Scripture that shows me my sin and error. He gives me the Holy Spirit to bring conviction concerning what I read in Scripture. But more importantly, he gives me new life that is made possible by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

The gap between my head and my heart remains, but by God’s grace that gap gets infinitesimally smaller every day.

About Mark McIntyre

A follower of Jesus Christ who shares observations about how Scripture should impact the church and the world. Mark is the original author and editor of Attempts at Honesty.

My reluctant New Year’s Resolutions

My experience is that resolutions are likely to be broken or forgotten before the end of January. Yet I am going on record with 5 of them. Read mine and share a few of your own.

Rev. Emily C. Heath: Jesus, Bullies on the Bus and the Rest of Us

Rev. Heath published a piece in the Huffington Post which purports to give a Christian response to bullies. I have two points of challenge for Rev. Heath. One based on something she didn’t say and one based on something she did say.

On the value of doctrine

Perhaps we should hit the pause button and stop to think about what kind of disciples we are making. We would do well to remember Jesus’ words in Matthew 7.

It is a worship problem, not a sin problem

If I am worshiping God, if I am acknowledging my dependence upon him, then, and only then, I have the perspective to see these sins for what they are. They are ugly, no matter how much the culture around me (both church and state) seek to justify them or make them palatable.

No-one beyond hope

But Jesus is the wild card that makes everything possible. The point (or at least one point) of this story is that no-one is beyond hope. No-one should be written off as no longer able to be changed. No-one.

John Lennox on Truth

My mention of truth leads me to fear that some people of postmodernist persuasion may be tempted not to read any further, unless of course they are curious to read (and maybe even attempt to deconstruct) a text written by someone who actually believes in truth. For my part I confess to finding it curious […]