Rogues, Rebels and Renegades (aka The Beloved)

"Some say he was an outlaw that he roamed across the land
With a band of unschooled ruffians and few old fishermen
No one knew just where he came from or exactly what he'd done
But they said it must be something bad that kept him on the run".
The Outlaw - Larry Norman


So, there it was - another posted list of things that I should and should not be doing. It may have well been saying "change the colour of your eyes" or "grow wings" or some other foolish thing, because none of it applies, however good the advice sounds. 

Let's get this straight - Christianity isn't for the religious. It isn't for those who have countless regimes that keep them all neat and tidy in body and soul so they can show everyone just how "whole" they are. Those who think they are so well adjusted, so well adorned, so healthy and wealthy, have no need of the radical remedy that Calvary and an empty tomb convey... they deem themselves to be doing just fine through what they think, feel and thereby adjudicate as "holy".

Jesus and His followers are blunt about such refinement.
Foul, stinking tombs of decay, vaunted by vipers and offspring of the devil, whose entire estate is valueless dung is Jesus' estimation of such 'religion'. Haters of God and creation that should wholly follow their asceticism to the point of emasculating themselves, echoes Paul. Anger, expressed through blunt profanity, is the response to religion.

There's a reason the scriptures look about such 'modesty' as something worse than the filth that clings to the bottom of our shoes.
These 'teachers' are seeking to undermine what God has made, provided and redeemed. They want us to believe we can find an equilibrium 'within' that allows us to treat the material as something endured, stoically, whilst the far more important refinement (or indulgence) of ourselves (what we deem as 'pure') goes on in 'progressive' (measurable) terms within (as defined by our standards, of course).

It's nothing more than the cycle of sin. It leaves us willingly  enslaved to the steel trap of our own religious pretenses and preferences, loosing sight of the true righteousness that comes in a God that touches what is unclean, holds to Himself the one who knows He is vile and unworthy, unconditionally loves the one who has nothing to give but the dreadful truth about themselves - that they carry a plague far, far worse than cancer.

Grace comes to the ones who know they are not good, not pure, not safe in their own behaviour, but constantly in need of mercy.
It's these who are truly free. Free to eat and drink, to wear whatever, to enjoy all that is given, because they understand that the only life that can define us well is the one that was given for them, given to them, in Jesus Christ.

This is why Paul tells us to avoid any teaching that seeks to bind us to lists of do's and don'ts about externals (Colossians 2:6-23). This is why the same Paul is so abusive and blunt to the Galatians when they externalize Christianity into becoming just such a religion (Galatians 3). There isn't space for politeness and etiquette when such piety and 'holy' modesty are what overtake us, because they kill the truth.

Paul stood alone for the stand he took.
Jesus was stripped, whipped and crucified because He dared to say life must come from somewhere other than our view of ourselves.

Christianity tells us we're the problem - we're where the poison resides, and only by Christ's bloody ransom is anything going to be whole again. In His death, our sin is vanquished. In His resurrection, all of creation is made whole again. Nowhere else is that so.

Stop reveling in your deeds and doctrines. Stop thinking 'I can' and run... run as the rebel you are to the one who loves you anyway, and there, you can begin to find what truly counts, not just for today, but forever.

There is Grace, thank God, in our time of need.