“So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” (Heb. 13:12-14)
This passage has been the theme of the past few weeks of my life. That we are to be, quite literally, outside the camp with Christ bearing the reproach he endured. Here in America we do not bear much reproach. But we ought to do more dying to self than any other part of the world.
Toy after toy, girl after boy, friend upon friend and thing after thing, we have it all. As a society we are lavishly rich. I have more books in my room than most churches in Africa have in their whole building. I have money to buy new guitar strings with. Man, we have money to smoke away (very literally). So it is obvious we do not bear much reproach (though mockery may come).
Dying to self however, that should be where we (believers in America) excel. We ought to go outside the camp and be with Christ. Seeing these things that so easily ensnare us as cheap in the face of Jesus.
I’m not saying things are bad, I like things, what I am saying is that things should not define us. The glory of God in the face of Jesus should define us.
Thus we must understand in our brains and hearts that our lives as believers in the west should be marked by unprecedented death to self just as in Asia there is unprecedented Christian killings. Things should be just that, things. Things that are the grace of God to be use to glorify God.
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