Dear
Friends in Christ,
Did the trolley driver at Disney World, or in
Honolulu say, “Watch your step?” Yes, because he or she did not want us to make
a misstep and get hurt. I remember when I was in college and a friend of mine’s
dad told me to watch my step as I walked through the cow barn. He did not want
me to step in it and get my boots dirty and stinky. In a bit of a different
application my father said to me on more than one occasion, “You better watch
your step.”
What love there is behind those three little
words, watch your step. Making a wrong step in attitudes or actions will hurt
us. When we watch our step, we step away from the wrong and harmful. We also step
up to the right and beneficial.
Through the inspired apostle’s pen, the Holy
Spirit directs us to attitudes and actions that will not grieve him because
they are wrong. The Spirit calls us to step up in forgiveness and compassion
just as Christ stepped up for us. We address Paul’s words under our theme, Watching Our Step As We Walk Through Life.
First, we are God’s dearly loved children. Second, we want to imitate our
loving Father.
No fewer than four times Paul refers to God’s
love in these few sentences. Did you relish the good news when you head it? “Sealed for the day of redemption…in Christ
God forgave you…dearly loved children…Christ loved us and gave himself up for
us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
Our Savior Jesus Christ is more than merely an
example of watching our step as we travel through life. Jesus Christ is the
power and wisdom of God. The Spirit’s gift of faith has changed us from the
children of God’s wrath to God’s sons and daughters. We no longer walk by the
flesh but by the Spirit. Therefore, we watch our step.
Jesus lived a life of perfect love. Perfect
love is fulfilling the law. Jesus loved his Father and he loved all of us
without sin. His kindness and compassion especially to those in need has no
equal. Even more important to Jesus as God’s dearly loved Son than the physical
benefit of his miracles, was the manifestation of his glory as God, and the
forgiveness of sins he earned.
How did Jesus earn our forgiveness? He
offered himself as a “fragrant offering
and sacrifice to God.” Sometimes to mask the stench of death and decay,
workers among dead bodies cover their mouths and noses with a cloth soaked in
perfume. Christ’s sacrifice not just merely covers up the stench of sin and
death but removed it. Jesus replaced the stench with the sweet fragrance of
acceptance and reconciliation.
We children stand before our heavenly Father
smelling like roses. This is not because God like so many earthly parents today
worship their children and do not see their wrongdoing. God has removed our
stink of wrongdoing and replaced it with the sweet fragrance of Jesus’ perfect
obedience.
We are God’s dearly loved children through
faith in Christ. We cannot match our brother’s perfect love but we can love as
he has loved us even as we carry around the decaying corpse of our sinful
flesh.
Watching our step means emulating Jesus’ love,
kindness, and compassion. In Christ, the Father has wished us well. He has been
tenderhearted toward us. This is the pattern we are to step in as we walk
through life. We want to be imitators of
our loving Father.
much
as dance students place their feet into the pattern of footprints outlined on
the floor.
God put his seal of ownership on us through
Holy Baptism. A seal not only signifies ownership. It also guarantees content.
Think of the seal on the back of a truck. The seal means whatever the load
sheet says about the loader and the contents is valid. Watching our step as we
walk through life is the shipping manifest so to speak of our relationship with
God. It says God made me his child. It says our Father has made the content of
my character and actions so that they imitate him.
That means we no longer carry certain things
in our walk. “Get rid of, literally,
make a clean sweep of, all bitterness,
rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.” We
cannot avoid sin popping up in our sinful hearts and minds. In Christ we can,
however, keep them from becoming characteristic of our lives; or ways of life,
others see in us that would be contrary to the imitation of our loving Father.
Instead, “Be
kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ
God forgave you. Be imitators, literally, mimics, of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love.” If
you want body art that tells people something about you, this passage would be
a good one to have inked in a prominent place. Even better yet, the Holy Spirit
inks that message on our hearts. It comes from the gospel and appears in the
letters of the law of love. Kindness and compassion, benevolence and tender
heartedness; not always perfect but always there, characterize the child of
God.
I point out again that Jesus Christ is not
merely an example for love his Father meant to give us by sending Jesus into
this world. Jesus is the power by his Holy Spirit working through the gospel to
give us the desire and ability to watch our step as we walk through life. “This is love, not that we loved God but
that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins,” John
wrote in his first epistle. This love compels us to mimic that selfless,
constant, and freely given kindness and compassion to others no matter that
they do not deserve it. Neither did we.
Watching our step in dangerous places
requires constant diligence and effort. It is no different in our walk through
this life as we watch out for the temptations to sin. God’s forgiveness in
Christ reassures us when we fail. It strengthens us in our efforts. Watch your
step can be a loving rebuke as a warning. It can be a loving reassurance that someone
is watching out for our wellbeing.
Thank you, Father, for genuinely caring so
much for me in order that I can genuinely care for my neighbor. Amen.
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