The Heart
Most people are unfamiliar with the state of their own heart. That is why they are surprised and shocked by their children’s rebellion. You’ve heard the term, “terrible twos”? As a whole culture, we are appalled to discover what emerges from these small souls! How silly. We’re like a man who looks in a mirror, and walks away, forgetting what he looks like.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. James 1:22-24
“Dang! I look good!” This deception is the reward of disobedience. Disobedience and self-deception are normal to the human heart.
Discipleship (what Jesus did and commanded us to do) is just like godly parenting, and vice versa. It holds up the mirror, and familiarizes us with ourselves in the context of unconditional love. It uncovers our rebellion, layer by layer, and lovingly turns us from it. Discipleship is the easy way, the rich way, the wise way…it’s the way for those who want to see. When we don’t want to see, we turn to religion (religious activity, forms of godliness without power) which leaves us in a (far from blissful) ignorant state. Our rebellion remains unconfronted as we walk away from the mirror, reveling in our rightness (whatever form that takes).
Life will hold up the mirror in other ways, whether or not we’ve wanted it. The best mirror that comes along is a man’s wife. In her he can see the fruit of his Christ-life accurately displayed. Is she filled with joy? Safe in love? Free to speak and free to be silent? Secure in her loveliness? Or is she sorrowful? Angry? Fearful? Passive? Next is their children. This display will be even more precise.
It is astonishing how men and women will lash out at these mirrors, sure that they are playing tricks, angry at the image there, but refusing to address how much hearing there is without doing. Those who are familiar with the state of their hearts will not be surprised by their children, but instead become tuned to the Spirit’s correction. As they perceive their children’s need, they will often see that it is a perfect diagnosis of their own need. Just this revelation embraced can bring a person into fruitful discipleship from the Lord Himself.
Religion will always offer something other than this gospel of turning away from sin into love. Some forms of religion will offer exposure of rebellion without the context of love. Even if they are doctrinally correct, they bring striving, anxiety, and death to the heart. The flip side will offer the promise of unconditional love without the confrontation of rebellion that is utterly inevitable as soon as AGAPE (GOD-LOVE) comes in contact with the human heart (as described in Jer. 17:9). The two are like baking soda and vinegar. There will never not be a reaction, in which the rebellion has to go for the love to stay.
People who hate authority tend to gravitate towards the latter forms of religion, while people more prone to performance out of fear gravitate towards the former. But Jesus is not afraid of either, or of our self-deception. HE has demonstrated Himself perfectly able to love sinners, and has no fear of what we fear most: to see the state of our heart in an accurate mirror. His love is so rich, it actually makes the experience the most profound joy that life can offer…the joy of salvation...for those who want to see.
Matthew 13:15-17
15For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and with their ears(A) they can barely hear,
and(B) their eyes they have closed,
lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and(C) understand with their heart
and(D) turn, and I would heal them.’
16But(E) blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17(F) For truly, I say to you,(G) many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.