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Home arrow Articles arrow Recent Articles arrow 2008 Jan-Mar arrow There's a reason to do it often . . .
There's a reason to do it often . . . PDF Print E-mail
Written by Steven Cuffle   
Monday, 23 August 2010
Nothing breeds contempt like familiarity, consistency and similarity.  These three things destroy sincerity and genuine affection without fail and bring human relationship of all sorts to disastrous ends every day.  These are some of the devil’s greatest weapons against the saints of God and we must, therefore, be armed against them and prepared to defeat them through the strength and wisdom supplied to us by God.      

Relationships take time, affection, thought and love in order to be successful.  If we remove those things, contempt is given room to move in and it undermines all the work previously done in creating a bond between two people.  If we allow contempt to move into our relationship with God, the result is very much the same and we being to move away from God and the promises we have as his spiritual children.

To hold something in contempt means to have a lack of respect or reverence for something, or it can mean to be willfully disobedient or disrespectful.  When we hold relationships in contempt, it means to think of the other person as inferior or unworthy of respect.  This could be manifested in a husband who treats his wife poorly or a child who refuses to obey their parents.  The same is true when we hold our relationship with God in contempt.  We begin to think of God as unworthy of our time or efforts.  We begin to follow our own will rather than his.  We begin to worship ourselves and our ideas rather than the creator.  The end result of contempt for God is judgment and punishment for spiritual infidelity.

This is why it is so important that we know what causes contempt and we know how to fight back against it.  Our spiritual lives depend on being able to recognize and disarm this snare set by the devil.

Familiarity: There is a sense in which we ought to be familiar with God.  Paul says that “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’”1   Abba is an intimate, personal term that children used to refer to their fathers.  We have a very intimate, close and personal relationship with God through his Son, Jesus.  In this sense, we ought to be familiar with God.

However, there is another way the word is used that we ought to avoid.  Familiarity can refer to acting in an improper, immodest or ill mannered fashion.  When we become familiar with God, we stop thinking of him like we should, we stop behaving toward him like we should, we stop reverencing him like we should – we begin to make ourselves equal with God.  Rather than being careful in our words and thoughts as we go to the Lord of the Universe in prayer, we casually approach him and flippantly refer to his grace and mercy.  We may begin to make jokes about repentance, forgiveness, salvation and mercy.  These jokes, among other things, show a serious lack of appreciation for the awful cost of salvation and the personal pain that God went through to make us his children.  We should learn about the wonderful gift we have in being part of God’s family without viewing God with this negative familiarity.

Consistency:  Like familiarity, there is a sense in which our relationship with God ought to be consistent.  Paul admonishes us to “rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances.”2  This certainly carries the idea of actions that are to be done consistently.  In this sense, we ought to be consistent in our behavior, thoughts and actions.

However, there is another sense in which consistency becomes harmful to our relationship with God.  If we always do the exact same things at the exact same times in the exact same ways using the exact same words, then we would be very consistent, but that kind of consistency is harmful rather than helpful.  Imagine a husband who talked to his wife three times a day, at mealtime, and no other time.  Imagine that he said the same words each time he spoke with her.  Are they talking without ceasing?  Yes, they talk every day.  Are they growing in their relationship with one another?  No.  In fact, after a while the wife would probably stop listening.  Is our prayer life like this?  Do we have set prayers or phrases that we say to God reflexively without thinking about the meaning?  Are there certain times of the day that we reflexively pray without giving thought to why we are doing so?  Though there is a pattern in these actions, consistency hurts our relationship with God rather than causing it to grow.

Another example is our assembling together for worship services.  We do this on the same days each week, at the same times, and we do the same things.  If we never think about what we’re doing, if we never put thought into what we’re saying, what we’re hearing, what we’re teaching, what we’re singing, then our consistency hurts us rather than helps us.  Rather than being a rote performance, the times we come together are a chance to pour ourselves out to God and each other; they are a chance to grow and meet the changing needs and challenges we have.  Though it may seem like we’re doing the “same old thing” every time we get together, in reality we ought to be very far removed from that kind of consistency.

Similarity:  As noted earlier, there is a sense in which our relationship with God is similar to other relationships.  There are two people involved who communicate with one another in expressions of love and affinity.  Paul would use the marriage relationship to teach us about Jesus’ relationship to his church.3  In this sense, similarities are not bad.

However, there is another sense in which similarity becomes harmful.  If we begin to mistakenly think our relationship with God is exactly like others we have, then we will fall into the devil’s trap.  We work for a set amount of time and then go home.  We turn off that relationship and begin our home life when we leave.  Yet, our relationship with God doesn’t work this way.  There is no schedule, there is no time off, there is no vacation.  We are children of God every moment of every day.  We are always acting in that “official capacity”.  Though we can hide things from our friends or keep secrets from our children, we should never think that we could hide things from God.  God knows all things, even the hearts of men; our secret sins and shortcomings that we are able to keep from others, God knows them.  Unlike our relationship to law, God isn’t waiting to punish us for those things; God is waiting to forgive us.  Unlike other relationships that can be damaged forever by transgression, God is always ready and willing to forgive.  God is always waiting to take us back when we confess our sins to him.  God is always gracious and merciful, kind and quick to forgive to those who seek his lovingkindness.

We can avoid these traps that the devil sets for us by recalling the great sacrifice Christ made on the cross for us.  In the Lords Supper, we are reminded of God’s great for love us, his familiarity with us.  By taking it each week, we are consistently reminded about the price of sin and the willingness of God to pay that price for us.  In the bread and fruit of the vine, we are reminded that Christ took on a body similar to ours and that, having suffered just like us, he is a faithful high priest in ministering to our needs.  It’s more than a meal, it’s a time to refocus on our relationship with God and our love for other people.

 
 
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