Behave!
It matters what you do and how you live.
If people break the law, we expect them to be punished. If something is done well, it is not unreasonable for there to be praise and reward.
How much more important that is in eternal matters.
The culmination of the vision that is the Book of Revelation makes it quite clear that, “When I come, I will reward everyone for what they have done”. For those who have “washed their robes” (confessed their wrong and received God’s forgiveness and new life) there is the promise of God’s blessings and the right to eat fruit from the tree that gives life.
This is the ultimate restoration of the world. It was the fruit of the tree that caused all the problems in the first place. God had given woman and man free range to eat anything in the garden – except the one in the middle. Eating it, going against God’s instructions, had consequences. In the world of Jesus’ coming rights will be wronged, the past forgiven, and the future in God’s life.
BUT the other side of the coin is that those who don’t want to live that way, those who do wrong and don’t want to be washed clean will be left outside the city, there will be no eating from the life-giving tree. But for those who want to come, the invitation is there – come. Our choices in life matter.
These choices are clearly lived out in the life and actions of Paul and Silas. It was obvious even to the spirits that they were servants of God, and what they were saying and doing was telling people how to be saved. When the earthquake freed their chains and the chains of their fellow prisoners, they showed their integrity by not escaping, and making sure no one else did either. Their actions led to the jailer asking the important question, “How can I be saved”. How they behaved caused others to see God in at work in them – and led to them finding faith in God.
Jesus too speaks of the importance of how people live out their faith. How their behaviour effects what others see and how they respond to God. He prays that those who have faith in him will be one – that the people of the world will believe you sent me.
What we do does affect how people perceive God, and how they respond to him. Do they see his followers as people of love, or that the church is full of in-fighting? Do they see God shining from our lives, leading them to question what it is that is making that difference to us? Do our lives turn others off God, or lead them to finding him?
How we behave matters. It matters eternally, whether we are welcome to come to God and eat and drink; and it matters each and every day, as we have the opportunity to share his way of love, humility and sacrifice – that his kingdom may come.
Pam's Perambulation 