What are the greatest responsibilities as a Christian / follower of Christ?
Let’s allow Jesus to answer these via scripture.
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40
The first commandant is ALL encompassing of our being. He expects no less from us. Jesus goes on to share many other statements that show the totality of that commandment.
Now let’s look at the second commandment Jesus gave us and what is required to do such an act of love towards your neighbor.
How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye. Luke 6:42
How do we rightly know what our posture should be before the Lord and our fellow believers?
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Romans 12:3
Humility and grace should be foundational within our character as we interact with one another. How does one maintain those personal character foundations within us? We must begin with ourselves as Jesus suggests. How can we know what really is at our core? I would say you cannot not know unless the Spirit of God reveals it to you.
This is why I believe it is vitally important for the disciple of Christ who is indwelled by His Holy Spirit to daily go before the Holy Spirit and ask if there is anything they need to change and or deal with within them. Getting His advice on our ‘log’ in our eye / life that is hindering us from seeing His Truth. Pride blinds us to our weaknesses. Pride sets us up to think we are ‘right’, and the other is ‘wrong’. We become the arbiter of the truth, … our truth. When in fact there is only ONE Truth … and His name is Jesus. From Him comes ALL Truth. Are we able to hear what He has to say about us… and our ‘pride’? Where exactly are our ‘specks’ that lie within our character? Do we have the courage to ask him? Do we have the courage to face what He will reveal to us? What is it that He has told you… personally? We all enjoy His encouragement and love, but are we mature enough to take His discipline and correction?
If we’re humble enough to ask Him and brave enough to listen, He will tell us where we need to change. Usually it’s just one step at a time. But we have to be faithful to address that step / correction He revealed to us, otherwise He most likely won’t give us any other instructions until we deal with what He has already presented to us.
What is the step He has you working on? Have you wondered why He seems to be silent in speaking to you? Sometimes He is waiting for us to be …faithful in dealing with what He has already asked us to do.
Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. Daniel 10:12