If you are a Christian and you lose everything you own, everyone you love, even your life, you have not really lost anything. “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in nor steal” (Matthew 6:20). The early Christian martyrs and saints knew this well, because many of them gave up their lives for their faith in Jesus Christ. They knew that the most a human could do for them was to end their lives. They knew that their souls belonged to God and no one could destroy them. And now they had what was waiting for them when their lives ended. In other words, they lost nothing, but they gained everything! It was their choice to not give in to pressure and declare their faith in Jesus Christ. And their choice earned them the crown of martyrdom and an eternal home in heaven. “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?” (Mark 8:35-36).
Freedom of choice is God’s greatest gift to us. The greatest glory we can give to God is to use our freedom of choice to choose Him. Our eternal future is affected by our choices. “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Our freedom of choice presents us with two choices: We can choose to follow the light (God), or we can choose to follow the darkness. When we choose to follow the light, we are responding to the above passage, and our actions are glorifying God.
- A club that kills can be used as a stake to secure a tent for shelter.
- The knife that cuts meat can be used to cut clothes to make clothing that protects us from the elements.
- The spear that kills can be used as a lever to lighten the load of heavy objects we lift.
It is clear, then, that the choices we make either enlighten or darken our souls. We have the freedom to choose to glorify God through our actions and interactions with our fellow human beings. All creation was designed for God’s glory and for good purposes. But the misuse of anything hinders its good purpose and casts the misuser into darkness. “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).
The prophet Isaiah said of Jesus Christ: “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light; and on those who sit in the region and shadow of death a light has dawned” (Matthew 4:16). “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:43-44).
How many times have you heard the phrase: “Love the sinner but hate the sin.” This phrase is only half true. We must love the sinner because Jesus Christ asked us in the Gospel to love everyone, even our enemies. We must not hate anything. Hate is a negative emotion that oppresses the one who practices it. Therefore, the enlightened version of this phrase is: “Love the sinner, enlighten him, and forgive the sin.”
If you use a calculator and enter 1, press the minus key, then enter 1 again and press the minus key, what is the total result of the two numbers? You get -2, and you double the negative number. When you hate evil, you double its effect. If you fight darkness with hatred, you yourself enter darkness! But when you illuminate the darkness with God’s light and love, you dispel the darkness and cancel it out. Just as when you enter -1 and then +1, the answer is zero. Cancel the influence of darkness by making wise choices based on God’s enlightened love.
“But now you also must put them all away: anger, wrath, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds” (Colossians 3:8-9). “For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known” (Luke 12:2).
As I mentioned earlier, we have a choice between light and darkness. When we choose a lie, we choose darkness. According to the previous passage in Luke’s Gospel, the darkness of our untruthfulness is always exposed when the light of truth shines upon it.
In Matthew 21, Jesus uses a parable about a father who had two sons. The father asked the first son to go work in his vineyard. The first son said no, but in the end he repented and went to work in the vineyard. The second son told his father he would go work in the vineyard but did not.
The first son was honest, for he did not tell his father what he (the father) wanted to hear, but he repented, doing the father’s will. The second son chose to lie to his father, telling him what he wanted to hear, but he was not determined to fulfill his father’s will. Thus the second son incurred his father’s wrath upon himself, for it became clear that he had not kept his promise. “For nothing is hidden, that will not be revealed.”
Dishonesty leads to darkness, choosing the truth is the path to enlightenment!
Since the dawn of the human race, as beings endowed with reason, we have been given choices. We learn from our choices, and from the results of our choices. We often think that the few mundane, everyday choices we make have no impact on us, but this belief could not be further from the truth.
“For with the judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you” (Matthew 7:2).
Through your choices, if you quickly change others through condemnation, dishonesty, greed, or hatred, you are only changing yourself, because you will receive whatever you give.
God has given us the gift of free choice. We are the architects of our own destiny. We can build toward the light and toward the darkness.
We build toward the light when we put the needs of others before our own. We build toward the light when we choose love, forgiveness, honesty, and clarity. As we build toward the light, we lay up treasures in heaven as we do what we do for the glory of God. As we build toward the light, we give God the greatest glory because we use our freedom of choice to choose Him by the way He has laid out for us through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Father Michael D. Jordan
Translated by Ilan Mansour
Quoted from Orthodox Heritage Magazine
