What's this all about? Part 1

If someone asked you the question, “What is Christianity all about?”, what would you say? The answers would be all over the place. They may look like one of the following:

“It’s about being good and not being bad”

“It’s about voting for Republicans”

“It’s about intolerance”

“It’s about judging people”

“It’s about Christian concerts and T-shirts!”

“It’s about going to church and praying”

“It’s about a relationship with Jesus”

“It’s about loving people”

“It’s about duping yourself so that you can explain the unexplainable”

Regardless of how you responded, isn’t it interesting that there are so many different responses? Isn’t it crazy that you can get “It’s about judging people”, and about “It’s about loving people” when describing the same thing? I’m not sure if you’re a Christian, if you’ve sworn Christianity off, if you’ve been burned by Christians in your past, or if you’re curious, but wouldn’t it be nice to have a clear answer to the question, “What is Christianity all about?” Wouldn’t it be fantastic to wade through all the emotion associated with that question and find out what’s really going on?

Well, I’m way out of my league in trying to accurately answer that question, but there’s a chapter in Pslams that can lead us in the right direction. Psalm 73 was written thousands of years ago, but it’s as relevant today as it could ever be. We’re going to go slowly through the chapter (probably 4 blog posts), and we’re going to jump around to other parts of the Bible as we go, but hopefully by the end we’ll have a good idea of what Christianity (and even life!) is all about.

So, I guess we’ll do what one normally would do when reading something and start with the first verse:

Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart”
Psalm 73:1 (NIV)

First, while Israel in this passage refers to God’s chosen nation in the Old Testament, we need to realize that since Christ came to die for the world, Israel can be extended to mean God’s people. When Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, He extended the opportunity to be God’s child to anyone who believes in Him. So today, “God’s people” refers to all people that have put their faith in Christ as their Savior.

So let’s see it again:

Surely God is good to [His people], to those who are pure in heart

Now, it’s easy to look at this verse and think, “Wait a second, does that mean we have to be pure in heart for God to be good to us? Do we have to earn His affection?” The answer is an overwhelming No. For God so loved the world [That includes all of us! Regardless of what we’ve done] that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). God proved His love for all of us when He sent His Son.

What Psalm 73:1 means is that God delights in goodness and purity in heart. We’ll see later on why the psalmist mentioned this. With that said, let’s move on.

But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold.
Psalm 73:2 (NIV)

So, the psalmist is saying that he goofed. What did he do that was not pure in heart?

For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked
Psalm 73:3 (NIV)

Hmm, I think we’ve all been here. Have you ever seen someone that’s doing wicked things, but they are prospering? Have you ever seen someone that cheats in school and makes great grades without getting caught? Have you ever looked at that jerk guy and wondered why so many girls like him? Have you seen somebody with shady business practices living a lavish lifestyle with seemingly no remorse?

We see stuff like this all the time in our culture. And what’s worse: we all can remember a time where we’ve done something wicked to land that big promotion, get that big score, increase our reputation, make people like us, or make some money.

The psalmist takes an interesting turn:

They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills.
Psalm 73:4-5

Have you ever looked at someone who’s doing the wrong thing, noticed their prosperity, and been jealous? We get jealous because it looks like they’re well off! Like the psalmist says, they’re healthy and strong! They don’t have burdens and worries like we do. They are not plagued by what the rest of us have to deal with. We end up saying what the psalmist said in verse 1: “Surely God is good to His people! Surely He’s good to people who are people that are pure in heart. So why do the wicked prosper? God, couldn’t we get a blessing here? After all, we’re the ones that are your people! Throw us a bone here!”

Yup, we get envious. We question why we should even try to do the right thing. These people that are controlled by their greed, their lust, and power seem to go through life without a care! It seems like they’re set!

Sometimes we do something worse. We look at this worldly prosperity and chase after it. We dedicate our lives to that career, that wild lifestyle, or satisfying our lustful desires so that we can “have no struggles”. As we will see, this can have dangerous consequences.

To be continued…