How to Live the Bible — Leaving Things Better

This is the one-hundred-sixty-ninth lesson in author and pastor Mel Lawrenz’ How to Live the Bible series. If you know someone or a group who would like to follow along on this journey through Scripture, they can get more info and sign up to receive these essays via email here.

“God has chosen to make known… the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.” Colossians 1:27-29

A woman remembers a bit of advice her father gave her many times when she was growing up: try to leave things better than you found them. In college, she became a teacher for children with disabilities and knew anything she would do in their lives would make a difference. But it’s not just teachers who can make a positive difference. Not just doctors or architects or judges. All of us can think this through: how can I leave things in my world better than I found them? How might God use me in that way?

It goes against human nature to leave things better than you found them. The world is full of chaos. Things fall apart. Lives deteriorate. But the regenerative power of God is never far away. We can’t lose hope that things can get better.

The Apostle Paul wanted to make a difference. He was committed to leaving the world better than it was before he began making disciples of Jesus. He believed proclamation was at the heart of it all. “We proclaim [Christ], admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.”

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That’s an incredibly high ambition. How can anyone hope to make such a difference in other people’s lives that they can “present” someone else perfect? Of course, none of us can. If you’re a parent, you’d love to raise perfect kids (and they, of course, would like you to be perfect, too). We’d all like to make the people in our lives get along all the time, mature into perfect character, praise us for making such a difference in their lives. But “perfect” doesn’t mean flawless—it means complete. Paul knew that the work he was doing to help people entrust their lives to Christ was putting them in the spiritual position of having everything essential that they need in life: the “glorious riches” of Christ and the “hope of glory” that comes through Christ.

We leave the world a better place when we know what is true, what we stand for, and proclaim those truths (the “riches of Christ”) out of a pure motive of love for others. It is not easy. Proclamation is steady “admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom,” and sometimes it is “struggling.” Thanks to God, the energy for the struggle comes from him and “powerfully works” in us.

APPLICATION

Make a commitment today to serve in your community within the next month. Mark the date on the calendar when you will help with such things as painting at a homeless shelter, picking up debris along the roadside or in a park, or doing fall yard-work for an elderly person. Make a difference by leaving things better than before.

[See previous – More Than Words]
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Mel Lawrenz (@MelLawrenz) trains an international network of Christian leaders, ministry pioneers, and thought-leaders. He served as senior pastor of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, for ten years and now serves as Elmbrook’s teaching pastor. He has a PhD in the history of Christian thought and is on the adjunct faculty of Trinity International University. Mel’s many books include Spiritual Leadership Today: Having Deep Influence in Every Walk of Life (Zondervan, 2016). See more of Mel’s writing at WordWay.

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