Embracing Self-Denial III

he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. — 2 Cor 5:15

 

No longer live for themselves…. We have a hard time viewing our lives through any other lens than living for ourselves. We evaluate everything with an eye ultimately toward our welfare as the central concern. We are devoted to our selves. If you have ever read any writing on Christian humility like Tim Keller's The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness, Andrew Murray's Humility, or C.S. Lewis's chapter in Mere Christianity "The Great Sin", you will probably be overwhelmed by how deep and pervasive is your concern for yourself and how it influences all of your actions and perspectives. When it comes to our work lives, concern for self can be expressed as a concern to be successful in our work.

When we bring this lens to the negatives of our lives, places where we are suffering (or failing at work), we seek an understanding of our suffering as a short term negative that ultimately is a positive for us in the end. From the last blog, the loving discipline view of suffering is that it is developing something that is good in us. This is true of the distance runner training that I experienced. And it is also true of some of what we suffer. People can tell stories of how a negative in their lives did develop a quality that was ultimately very positive for them.

But I do not think that it is always the case that the negatives in our lives are there to develop something good in us or in our work. Notice that self remains the central concern in this perspective. It is ultimately about who we are becoming and what is being developed in us. This view can be summed up as whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger, with the emphasis on me becoming stronger. Also notice that a secular person would be able to embrace this perspective for their lives as well.

But what if it does kill me? The reality of martyrdom for the persecuted church adds a different dimension. And this is where the secular person will not follow. With martyrdom, the self is not enhanced or made stronger, it dies. Martyrdom clearly has no value for our self in this life. It is an expression of devotion to the Lord that is willing to pay the ultimate in sacrificing self.

Paul anticipates his own martyrdom with the language of being poured out as drink offering (Phil 2:17, 2 Tim 4:6). But he also talks about aspects of his life in terms of dying. 2 Cor 4:11 "For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh." This dying perspective on the negatives of our lives is different from the discipline perspective. It is not about becoming stronger in our selves or ultimately more successful in our work. It is about our selves being sacrificed as an act of devotion.

This is not good news if we are still trying to live for ourselves and are devoted to success at work. What it does mean is that when we are encountering negatives in our work, we do not need to see or even believe that God is using these negatives to accomplish something that will eventually lead to work success. That is a possibility, but they also may be experiences of failure that challenge us to sacrifice our devotion to success. And if they are, then we are honoring God when we simply continue to worship Him with our lives when He is not feeding our need for success.