- do your best and
- do the bare minimum.
We know we should strive to do our best and go “above and beyond” when we can, but often we are too beat, lazy, uninterested enough to do anything beyond the bare minimum.
But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
Matthew 3:15ab
In school we all know the folks (not saying I was one of them, even if I was) who spent a fair amount of time figuring out what the minimum grade I could get on something and still get the grade I wanted in the class. Had I spent less time doing the math for the grade instead of studying math for the class, I would have done better overall – and probably felt better about the result.
We are Called to believe in Jesus for forgiveness, for life, and for salvation. We are Called to follow Him and His ways; to live in obedience and using the gifts He has blessed us with. We are Called to live as best we can because we rejoice in the Gift of Salvation He has given us, not the minimum because we are already saved and we can just “ride life through.”
Jesus gave us the example: He was perfect and did not need to be baptized. Yet He did so, “to fulfill all righteousness.”
The goal isn’t just to be saved, but also to live as His saved!
One of the implications is that we do not go on living a life of sin “that grace may abound” (Romans 6:1). We are not to live in the sin that once held us, but let the life we live, “live to God” (Romans 6:10).
Instead of a mindset that says, “God has saved me through Jesus and has done everything, so all is good and I don’t ever need to worry” (a true statement), we should be living in the joyful reality that “God has saved me through faith in Jesus and has done everything, empowering me with the Holy Spirit to do all things to God and for others!”
We have been saved; fully and completely!
Respond to that free Gift by doing your best and living for God!
WE HAD NO POWER TODAY, SO NO RECORDING! Our apologies.
Scriptures
- Romans 6:1-11
- Matthew 3:13-17
