Shalom not Chaos

Do you remember the first time you became aware that you were being wooed by the Lord to walk with Him?  Even if you had accepted Jesus as a child, there most likely was some point as a teenager or an adult that you began to understand the significance of your decision relevant to being set apart.  We visited that very topic last week, but there are so many aspects to this crossroads.  Deciding to pick up your cross and follow Him should have resulted in changes in both your thinking as well as your life.  This is especially true the older we are when we make that change.  What happened to your relationships when you made that decision?

This morning I was studying the writings of Paul in Corinthians and began to ponder the circumstances that prodded Paul to write what he did.  First consider this scripture - 1 Corinthians 7:22-24 And remember, if you were a slave when the Lord called you, the Lord has now set you free from the awful power of sin. And if you were free when the Lord called you, you are now a slave of Christ. God purchased you at a high price. Don't be enslaved by the world. So, dear brothers and sisters, whatever situation you were in when you became a believer, stay there in your new relationship with God.  Rampant slavery as well as sexual immorality and pagan worship was an intricate part of society.  Imagine yourself as a brand new believer in Corinth and trying to figure out how you function in the midst of this environment.  Notice that Paul does not say, "evacuate, evacuate!".  Paul admonishes them to begin to see themselves as slaves to Christ and not to the world, but to stay where they are ~ in the marriages that they are committed to as well as the current "life position" (slave or free man).  He is not advocating rebellion and chaos, rather an influential lifestyle that reflects God's love throughout.   

Tremendous chaos was resulting from this new movement of people following The Way.   Those that were outside this movement were alarmed at the rapidity with which it was growing and the spirits of fear and Jezebel were manifesting at every turn.  Yet the apostles did not advocate a violent revolution but instead a revolution of love and caring.  The early followers of Christ changed the world as it existed not because they forced their beliefs on others, but because they were able to walk out their beliefs of love.  The power of love is the most influential force on the face of our earth.  Yet how many of us have walked this out from day one?


Let's consider the typical situation of a marriage that is unequally yoked because of the spouses came to know and accept Jesus after the marriage took place.  Far too often the believer becomes a zealot and tries to force this new recognition of the power of God onto their spouse.  The spouse resists because they have yet to hear this call in their own hearts and simultaneously they have seen the person they had married change before their eyes.  Without time to acclimate to this new persona with whom they are now living, the changed person begins "preaching" day and night in disbelief that their spouse is not getting it.  Chaos, disharmony, tension, anger all begin to mount and their is no Shalom in the home.  There is no agape love which is the core value of what Jesus taught us.  The same scenario begins to play itself out in the work place, in social circles, in extended family circles.  How could we have missed the mark so badly?

1 Corinthians 7:17  Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches.  The more significant aspect of this discussion is the understanding that God knew exactly where you were in life when He began wooing you.  Clearly there is a purpose we are to serve in our given circumstances or else He would have waited until our circumstances changed before He called out to us.  The Lord has assigned us a place.  This is not to say that when we are caught in bad circumstances because of decisions made in this fallen world that He chose those circumstances for us.  I personally believe that He allows us to walk out the consequences of human decisions made out of free will, whether ours or others.  The "walking out" becomes how we honor and worship Him or how we defer to the world.  Simply put, God knows where we are at all times and He is loving us through those circumstances if we will allow Him.

Believers are meant to change the world through love, not violent revolution.  We are meant to disrupt, but to disrupt through love and the introduction of Shalom to the atmosphere around us.  People should see that we are different, that we are set apart.  Ultimately however that is meant to draw them to Christ, not send them running in the other direction.  So each of us must ask ourselves, does the way I live my life draw people to Him because they want what I have, or does it send them away saying, "I sure am glad I don't follow her God."? We must eagerly pursue Shalom in every aspect of our life and seek His strength to walk in love no matter what the circumstances.  We are not to resign ourselves to living a quiet unnoticed life that allows us to blend in with the environment around us.  Instead I urge you to live a life that proclaims you are loved and you are the physical embodiment of His love on this earth.  If we will all walk in love, we will change the world.