You can follow today’s passage by clicking on this sentence.
It might tell you a lot about me that of all the phrases I picked out as I read this short but potent passage was ‘sober judgement’. To me sober judgement has always been something which keeps me thinking of myself as ‘less-than’ other people. I am not to elevate myself. I am not to think too highly of myself. I am to try and view myself in a balanced, properly humble way. But how hard that is to maintain! How perspective shifts, as life changes, as we get older. So many days have been wasted in my own life, as I’ve worried, panicked and succumbed to downright paralysis of fear over exactly how God views me, what impact that might have on me and therefore how I should view myself. It is terrifically hard work. It is exhausting, in fact, seeking to keep one’s view of oneself and other people, in check. Particularly is this so when it is driven by fear: fear of what others will think, fear of what God thinks, fear of what will happen when I give in and close my eyes, what will I think?
All of this is very real, but it also very really misses the point. Entirely so. ‘We are one body, in Christ’, says Paul. You might be stronger or weaker. You might think my faith is better or worse than yours. You might think me a heretic. But I am part of the same body you are, within Christ, by the mysterious and wonderful grace of God. We are invited, called, equipped and sent to live as part of that body and to invite others to join with us, not as joyless, fearful, obedient worshipping drones, but as free, united, joyful and generous sharers and livers of love. The Way we walk is the way of freedom. So exercise sober judgement, but be sober in knowing that God has made us who we are, we are his and he is with us and for us.