When we really look at the Bible's description of God, we see that God reveals Himself to us as a God of action. Love. Compassion, grace, slowness to anger, mercy, faithfulness. Bring peace, healing, deliverance. Caring for widows and orphans. Binding up broken hearted people. Looking with concern on the poor. This is who God is. And it's what He does. Positively.
If we really fear God, we find His focus. We share it. Focus is a key for understanding the Biblical reality of faith. Each of us can have different foci in our lives. We can have a focus that is the satisfaction of our appetites and personal desires. This is ultimately negative, because it is self-serving. It is focus turned in on ourself.
Or we can have a focus on what is positive. Now, the Old Testament Torah (Instruction / Law) was designed to be positive. Yet much of it was written to reinforce positive instructions for living by giving preventative rules and ceremonial regulations. But at its heart, it was instruction designed to be positive. The trouble was that, as time went on and in Jesus’ day, the preventative rules and ceremonial regulations had come to dominate the mindset of the religious leaders. And in that sense, the Law had become self-serving and negative.
For Jesus and the Christian community, the focus is on the positive. Jesus is the fulfilment of the Torah. All He does in positive. The ceremonial is seen to be fulfilled completely, in and through what Jesus Christ has done. And the preventative is no longer patrolled by legalism. The ceremonial is now found in the custom of the community and the preventative rules in the conventions of the community. The church’s heart lies in being a convictional community, seeking to live out the practices of Christ. Together focussing on the positive that marks the mind and the will of God. The question is now, ‘what is beneficial in extending the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ’?
For Jesus and the Christian community, the focus is on the positive. Jesus is the fulfilment of the Torah. All He does in positive. The ceremonial is seen to be fulfilled completely, in and through what Jesus Christ has done. And the preventative is no longer patrolled by legalism. The ceremonial is now found in the custom of the community and the preventative rules in the conventions of the community. The church’s heart lies in being a convictional community, seeking to live out the practices of Christ. Together focussing on the positive that marks the mind and the will of God. The question is now, ‘what is beneficial in extending the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ’?
So let me ask you - 'what's your focus'?
