OUR LIFE IN GOD’S IMAGE
There is much confusion within Christianity about what it means to be created in God’s image. Essentially, what it means is that God is spirit and not flesh. But we are basically flesh (i.e. religious) and not spirit. God’s purpose is to transform us so that we function less and less in the flesh (i.e. religion), and more and more in the spirit. When the transition is complete, we are fully disengaged from practicing religion, and fully engaged in spiritual worship in our hearts.
The more we can disengage from religion, the closer we come to spiritual perfection. We are in the process of being transformed/recreated/perfected into God’s image.
Getting from here to there, however is not easy. God’s challenge to transform us is greatly complicated by the fact that our fleshly condition is what we know best and it is the condition in which we are trained and encouraged by the world to function. It might be accurate to say that we are addicted to our fleshly habits.
The various kinds of fleshly things to which we become attached are broadly suggested in the following parable:
Luke 14: One sabbath when he went to dine at the house of a ruler who belonged to the Pharisees, they were watching him. 2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. 3 And Jesus spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath, or not?” 4 But they were silent. Then he took him and healed him, and let him go. 5 And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well, will not immediately pull him out on a sabbath day?” 6 And they could not reply to this. 7 Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he marked how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, 8 “When you are invited by any one to a marriage feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest a more eminent man than you be invited by him; 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. 11 For every one who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
COMMENTARY: It is common in all religious organizations that the leaders take seats above and in front of other religionists in a gathering. It may be a regular meeting like church or a special meeting like a wedding, but a place of honor is usually reserved for the religious leaders.
This is about pride, especially spiritual pride. It says that those who are presumptuous about the honor they should receive from men because of their titles, position, authority, etc. will eventually be humbled by God. Since Jesus was in the company of religious rulers, this warning is directed to religious leaders at all levels.
This parable addresses the issue of our reputation as a key feature of our life. Reputations usually come with certain perks that give some sort of advantage to people with public reputations. In religious circles, people with a reputation as a leader typically receive some kind of honor or deference because of their reputation as a spiritual person. Often religious clothing is the ticket to gaining recognition as a leader in the broader public. The parable warns against using our reputation as a spiritual person to gain any kind of advantage or perk that is not available to others.
See Third Commandment for more about reputations.
For more about devices religious people use to enhance their reputations, see Making a Name for Yourself and TEBOW’S BROAD PHYLACTERIES.
12 He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
COMMENTARY: This is a warning about favoritism and partiality. Favors may be tangible (e.g. material gifts, money, invitations to special events, gifts of service, etc.) or intangible (e.g. praise, honor, titles, position, authority, etc.). It strongly suggests that the favors are given with the ulterior motive to get something in return for the favor given.
Because this parable was told to religious leaders, it has special application for them and for religionists who have relationships with them. It says that the reward for a favor given is another favor of some kind. The clear implication is that there will be no rewards from God for people who use favoritism in any form to advance themselves or gain any kind of profit for the things they do for others. This parable agrees with the principles that the right hand should not know what the left hand is doing, and that all acts of charity should be done in secret.
15 When one of those who sat at table with him heard this, he said to him, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!” 16 But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet, and invited many; 17 and at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for all is now ready.’ 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it; I pray you, have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them; I pray you, have me excused.’ 20 And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So the servant came and reported this to his master. Then the householder in anger said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.'”
COMMENTARY: This section discusses the various aspects of our life that interfere with our relationship to God. They include business, jobs, and family. These are life issues that are common to everyone, of course, but Jesus is warning that they should not be so important in our life that we do not have time to meet with God and get to know him. Such people think that they are spiritually rich and that they need none of the things that God can give them (i.e. the fruits of the spirit).
The kind of people God is looking for are those who are spiritually poor, spiritually blind and spiritually handicapped. They are the ones Jesus came to heal (i.e. restore to spiritual health).
25 Now great multitudes accompanied him; and he turned and said to them, 26 “If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
COMMENTARY: These verses are further elaborations on the issue of family as hindrances to our relationship to God. Jesus uses the hyperbole of hating mother and father to make a comparison of how much people should love him. Obviously he does not mean that people should actually hate their parents. Instead of literal, natural parents, he is talking about spiritual parents (i.e. those who have influenced their religious beliefs and practices). These parents may have lived hundreds of years ago or they might be contemporaries. They will usually also be natural parents because they usually have the most opportunity to teach and guide children in religious matters.
Basically Jesus is saying that people who follow him must hate the teachings of those who have discipled them into Old/First Covenant religion. Jesus is the embodiment of the New Covenant which is so contrary to the Old/First Covenant that they are compared as life and death, light and darkness, good and evil. People who abandon their Old/First Covenant beliefs and practices must hate them so much that they would not want to turn back to them, even if they get great pressure from friends and family to do so. If they yield to such pressure, they effectively show that they love Old/First Covenant religion more than they love Jesus and the New Covenant. Choosing to yield to such pressure from Old/First Covenant religionists is equated with hating Jesus and God.
27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build, and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an embassy and asks terms of peace. 33 So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. 34 “Salt is good; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? 35 It is fit neither for the land nor for the dunghill; men throw it away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
COMMENTARY: Renouncing all that we have first refers to our religious life. It may include our business life and family life, but our religious life is what conflicts most with God.
It is possible, and indeed necessary to maintain business, job and family relationships while being a New Covenant disciple because we need to be circulating in public so that the light of God can be seen in us. So God does not require that we renounce those parts of our life altogether. He does require, however, that we renounce all of our Old/First Covenant religious beliefs and practices. They are not compatible with New Covenant faith and works.
In God’s view, it is a matter of choosing which master you will love and serve. God says that it is a life and death choice. People who are unduly influenced by family to stick with Old/First Covenant religious beliefs and practices effectively choose to follow the gods that their spiritual fathers and mothers followed.
One of those fleshly habits is religion. No matter what culture we are born into, we are quickly introduce into the prevailing culture. More often than not, the religion in which we grow up has been the family religion for many generations. So we not only have the religious habits that we learn, but strong family and cultural ties tend to keep us practicing that religion. This is why Jesus said that we must hate our mothers and fathers if we want to follow him.