Saturday, December 8, 2012

Simplicity In Christ

"But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."
2 Corinthians 11:3 (NKJV)

When Paul wrote his second letter to the Corinthians he warned them about being deceived and getting away from the "simplicity that is in Christ".  Too often people have taken the simple Gospel message and complicated it with man-made rules and regulations.  The fact is that God sent Jesus to die on the cross for humanity and to become our substitute to pay for sin; that is the Gospel message, the good news.  God and His Word are really not as complicated as people sometimes make Him and His Word out to be.

Jesus talked about spiritual things in a very simple way that anyone could understand.  Jesus did not use complex terminology to try and further complicate a God that many people did not really know or understand. The religious leaders of Jesus time also spoke about God, but not like Jesus did.  One reason for this was because those religious leaders were more focused on the rules and regulations of following the Law than they were about having a relationship with God.  In Matthew 23 Jesus said that the Pharisees would even tithe from the herbs they grew but they neglected justice, mercy, and faith.  In other words, the Pharisees missed the point of the Law while trying to keep the regulations of the Law.

God wants a relationship with us, but some Christians have gotten away from the simplicity in Christ and have complicated it with rules, doctrines, and traditions which leave people with no joy and an ineffective Christian life.  We need to spend time with God in prayer, not trying to sound sophisticated or super spiritual but just talking to our Heavenly Father.  We need to spend time with God in His Word, not so we can learn more facts or find some new revelation but just to get to know God better and to discover who we are in Christ.  If you have gotten into the rut of just following the rules then maybe you need to take a look to see where you have gotten away from the simplicity found in Christ and get back to the basics of a focusing on a relationship with God and not living by a set of rules.

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