Title: What do saints live by?
Contents
What do saints live by
Acts 2:22-36
In Tolstoy's work, 'What do people live by?', three questions are asked to the angel who disobeyed God's command and came to this earth. ‘What dwells in man, what is not given to man, and what does man live by?’
What is the answer to this? The angel who came down to this earth naked will laugh three times, and through that laughter, you will know the answer.
The first time I laughed when I saw the shoemaker's wife who made the dinner for the vagrant as if he was pitiful, while drinking with the money to buy a coat and swearing at the husband who brought in an unknown vagrant. The second smiled when the rich man to die that day was irritable and ordered shoes for a year, and the third laughed at his wife raising orphaned twins next door.
Through this experience, the angel found the answer, 'What is in man is love, what is not given to man is wisdom to know what he really needs, and man lives with love.'
As Tolstoy asked, what does man live by?
There are several fundamental motives that move people and make them act.
The first is instinct. I eat because I want to eat, I sleep because I want to sleep. Sexual desire arises, so we have sex. Humans have many instincts, and we live and act according to those instincts. This is the most natural and also the most basic principle of action. However, if this is the only action principle, or if this is the main action principle, it is a life that is truly lacking. Such a person is often referred to as an animal person.
The second is a sense of duty. I work hard at the company and earn money out of a sense of duty as the head of the household. How much work do you do out of a sense of duty as a spouse, a sense of duty as a child, or a sense of duty as a parent? Knowing one's duty and fulfilling it is more advanced than instinct. Seeing that many people avoid military service, which is a citizen's duty, it can be said that they do quite well if they are faithful to their sense of duty.
The third is belief. In March 1993, an unconverted long-term prisoner, Inmo Lee, was repatriated to North Korea. This person is a representative person who resisted conversion to South Korea and stayed until the end, and was sent to North Korea for human rights reasons. Besides him, many people refused to move to South Korea and went to North Korea. These are people who are staunch in their conviction that they will not give up on the communist Juche ideology in North Korea.
Communism has long since become a waste of mankind's worst ideology, but they could not abandon that ideology and went north. A North Korean newspaper that reported on the life of In-mo Lee, who went to North Korea, said, “… Although gray haired, he did not abandon his oath to the Party and the leader, and he did not betray the conviction of a revolutionary warrior despite harsh punishment, cold and hunger. There is. This is a good example of what beliefs are and how powerful beliefs are.
But a belief may have power, but that power cannot be said to work properly. You may become famous like the old Inmo Lee, but the problem is that you can become famous in the wrong direction. Because beliefs are what you think are right, you can go wrong and cause big problems. Hitler lived up to his beliefs, but those beliefs caused huge problems.
Fourth, it is a hobby. These days, hobbies have become an important principle of action for many people. As the idea of individualism spreads, one lives according to one's own liking, one's own way, without being conscious of others and without criticizing others. ‘What does it matter to others if you do it because you like yourself’ Their hobbies are the main cause of their lives.
Other than that, there are times when I do it because of fear, and there are times when I do it because of face.
So here's something we want to point out. The question is, ‘What are the saints living by?’ A believer is a person who believes that the principle of their life is in the Word of God.
Saints do not live by instinct. It's not about living by moral standards. Neither does he live by a sense of duty or conviction. A believer is a person who has decided to live by faith and by faith. A Christian is a person who believes in God, lives according to the Word of God, and knows that the life of serving God is the best life and living by that faith.
Even a person who lives a religious life cannot be without instinct as long as he is a human being. However, they are not people who live by the instincts of saints, but people who live by controlling their instincts by faith.
Last Lent, I also tried a little fast. I thought that it would be difficult to fast for 4 days. However, some people fast for a week, 10 days, or even 40 days.
Saints are beings who live under the control of even their instincts by faith. When Jesus carried the cross, he instinctively wanted to avoid the pain of the cross. The fear of the pain made him hesitant. However, the Lord knew that the cross was God's will, and by faith he overcame his instinctive fear and took up the cross. This is the saint.
When many people look at the standards of living in the world, their own interests always come first. We work hard when it is in our own interests, but we do not do it when it is not profitable. However, for Christians, their own interests are not the standard, but the will of God. Even if it is a loss, if it is God's will, we do it, and if it is a profit, we do not do it unless it is God's will.
When David was running away from King Saul, he had nothing to eat, no clothes to wear, and was exhausted in mind and body, and he collapsed and died. However, a very good opportunity to think about what God had prepared for David happened by chance. King Saul had come to the cave where they were hiding to do business. What a great opportunity. Since it is an opportunity God has made, the men want to kill King Saul. Opportunities have never been so good. But David spares Saul, believing that it was not God's will to kill the king whom God anointed. You cannot live the life of a true believer by spitting out when you use it and swallowing it when it is sweet.
God told Abraham to offer your only son Isaac as a burnt offering at the place I will show you (Genesis 22). From Abraham's point of view, these words cannot be obeyed at all. How do you instinctively offer your own son as a burnt offering? From a moral point of view, how can a human sacrifice be offered? From a human point of view, this was absolutely unbelievable.
However, the reason Abraham obeyed even though it was something he could not do instinctively and rationally was because he realized it through the words God had mentioned. In the meantime, Abraham realized God's will to make descendants through Isaac and was able to offer Isaac through the process of giving the word again and renewing the covenant whenever he made a human request because he did not understand the words God had given him. is. In other words, perfect obedience, religious obedience, is possible only when there is complete faith.
Faith is completely obeying the word of God I serve and laying down everything else. It doesn't just happen for this to happen. In order to fully trust in God, you must be trained by the Word. Only then can you become a complete faith that can obey any word.
Saints, by what are you acting and living? In many cases, like the rest of the world, you too will live by your instincts, your hobbies, your duties, your fears and your convictions.