No Pain No Gain

This phrase seems to hold true, not just in a physical sense.
"Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it." Luke 17:33

I was just listening to some talks on Church history and thinking about how the Catholic church became what it did. Up until the time of Constantine, roughly 300AD, Christians had been persecuted since Jesus' assension. They went through rough times, but flourished as a result. They were able to stand firm in their faith through tough times, enduring so admirably that non-Christians noticed.
When Christianity became allowed, and then abundant, Christians got comfortable. They started to forget about God and started to focus on themselves, their own glory and power.

Christianity is a religion based on sacrifice. Jesus set the ultimate example. Times are tough, but glory follows.

Truth is what we need to seek, not comfort. The truth of the matter is that we suck! We have sinned and fallen short of the ultimate and best plan that God has for us. Unless we accept the fact that we don't live up to the moral standard that we all have engrained in us, we can't understand why we need God. What is there to be comforted about if we don't admit to having troubles? If there is nothing wrong with hurting other people and living a sinful life in general, then why does it feel wrong? We have to come to the low point of seeing our depravity, before we try to grab onto the comfort that can be had in God. Jesus' death only means life if we realize that our state is wretched and helpless.

Hard times seem to come before good, its always good to remeber what you have come through. All the time I wish for things to be easy and great, but its easy to forget God when they are. He's merciful to allow us so many pleasures even in our fallen state, but He also knows better than we do, what is best to pull us back to Him.

Acts 14:15-17

“You should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”

This verse speaks for itself.

Matthew 6:21

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

The first question to ask is what is your treasure? Make God your treasure, and your heart will follow suit. I often times get sidetracked on the road that leads to looking like a good Christian. I try to make it look like my heart is in the right place, by doing good things, the things I should do. This is a road that’s easy to get onto, but not so easy to realize you’ve made a wrong turn somewhere. The turn off is very subtle.

This verse is a test to see which road you are on. Where do you find your treasure? On earth, where everything deals with how you look and act? Or in heaven, with a real God who wants to be your only treasure?



When I find myself on the “look like a good Christian” path, how I confront sin is different. If I try to keep myself from sin on my own strength, trying to look “good”, I might succeed for a time; I can seem to succeed for a long time. Eventually will power starts to wear.

In Acts 5, a Pharisee named Gamaliel speaks to the religious council with some powerful words, “if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it – lest you even be found to fight against God.”

In the same way, if our efforts are of our own strength, they may last for a time, but they will come to nothing.

I’ve heard this said and said it to my self many times, but I have always found myself veering back onto the path that leads to ruin. I have found that recognizing the wrong path is only the first step. I need to go back to the straight path. Once again I try to do it myself and fail! It’s circular logic. I think that I can stay off of this “look like a good Christian” path by just realizing that it exists, and that I shouldn’t go that way. Where does God come into the equation?

The deepest issue here goes back to the first question, where is your treasure? There is your heart. Father, I pray that you would be my treasure.

Ephesians 1-4

Paul says “walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.”(NASB 4:1)
We are supposed to walk in a manner worthy because God has not just saved us from our sin, but also “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” (1:3) It doesn’t stop there, He also adopted “us as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself.” (1:5)

God wants us to walk in a manner worth because “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love.” (1:4)

He proceeded to tell us a few things of how this is to look: “with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love.”

In all of this we are “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit” (4:3). For “there is one body and one Spirit…one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” (4:4-6)

We know that God is one and He wants us as, His body, His church to “keep the unity,” (not create it!) and be one. He already created the unity. (2:11-22)

Jesus “gave gifts to men” (4:8) to help us keep the unity. “To each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” (4:7) We have seen through the last few weeks that “He Himself (Jesus) gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.” (4:11) These positions it says are given “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” (4:12) The purpose of these positions is equipping, meaning furnishing completely everything needed for the work of ministry so that the body of Christ is edified, literally built up. The word “saints” doesn’t refer only to “super Christians”; we are all saints if we have faith in Christ.

Paul also speaks of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, as well as Romans 12. These lists differ in there scope so we know that the list given here in Ephesians is not meant to be a complete and exclusive list of the gifts given by God.

We know that “to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift” (4:7). We each have a gift then, and are called to live as “the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (4:24). Each part of this body is “joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (4:16). The body needs each part to be doing its share so that it can grow properly and build itself up. Each part therefore needs to be grounded in its “knowledge of the Son of God” (4:13) “that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine…but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ” (4:14-15).

Ephesians 3:3,6

“the mystery…that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ…”

God reveals a “mystery” to Paul (something that had it not been revealed, could not have been discovered).

This is big stuff; we are given the chance to be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers in the promise of Christ. I think these are things we might often take for granted, assuming that God would give them to us, why not, right?

The Jews were God’s chosen people, now we can be part of that. It doesn’t say, however, that the Gentiles should be the only heirs. The Jews are not abandoned by God.

Ephesians 2:10

“we are His workmanship…”

The term is poiema in Greek meaning poem.

Not only does God save us, and then make us adopted sons of God, he also makes us beautiful poems, or works of art.

Ephesians 2:8

“For by grace you have been saved through faith…”

Faith does not save us. It’s by grace that we are saved. That grace is received by faith. Its God’s doing not ours.