CROSS AND CROWN   
 
                                                

                                            HOW A TRUE CHRISTIAN SHOULD LIVE

                                    Exod. 22:20-26; Ps. 17; 1 Thess. 1:5-10; Matt. 22:34-40

“‘Teacher, what is the great commandment in the law?’ And he said to him, ‘You shall

love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your

mind. That is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love

your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the

prophets’” (Matt. 22:36-40).

There are many commandments in the Old Testament, but these two are the most

important ones, and together they form the center and heart of the Christian’s code of

behavior. A Christian is someone who believes in Jesus Christ for his salvation. He

depends only on the merits of Christ’s vicarious death on the cross for his justification

without works. Then he begins to follow Jesus; and these two great commandments

show him the way he should take. They teach us how to live as Christians.

We should not be nominal but true Christians who believe in Christ for our

justification through our faith, without works, and who then follow these two

commandments to grow in holiness. These two commandments mark the way of

sanctification for a Christian.

We should not uncritically follow the crowd or go along with the current around us,

but discern what is right and wrong, good and bad, and be witnesses in the darkness of

this world by our new and holy way of living (Acts 1:8; Phil. 2:15). There are those who

think that it a virtue simply to uncritically imitate the worldly ways and lifestyles that

they see around them. They therefore imitate the world, adopt its lifestyle, and do what

they see those around them doing. They lack discernment. They reject the ideal and

pattern of the cross as a model for Christian behavior, and instead of taking up their cross and living an abstinent and self-renouncing life, they live in the common pleasures of the world. They think that in doing so they are the ones who are acting correctly, while everyone else is out of line. They have forgotten the first commandment. They are nominal Christians.

A true Christian, on the other hand, lives according to these two great

commandments. He loves God with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his mind,

and is completely dedicated to him. He finds all his happiness in God and therefore

renounces the unnecessary pleasures of the world. He does not want to divide his heart

among other unnecessary pleasures outside of God (Col. 3:1-2). He therefore lives a life of evangelical poverty, abstinence, sacrifice, and simplicity. He lives detached,

unentangled with, and divested of the unnecessary pleasures of the world that only divide his heart and darken and sadden his spirit.

A true Christian does not live like a nominal Christian, who only follows and imitates

the world and what he sees around him. He rather lives only for God with an undivided

heart. He serves only one master (Matt. 6:24). He knows that those who leave all for

God receive a hundredfold reward (Matt. 19:29). Then he dedicates himself to the good

of his neighbor and pours out his life in service to him. Thus we see that although he is justified by faith alone, without works, his life as a Christian is very vigorous. He has chosen the more difficult path of life and passes through the narrow gate of the few (Matt. 7:13-14). He is afraid of the thorns, which are the pleasures of the world that confuse his thoughts and darken his spirit (Luke 8:14). He therefore adopts an austere and ascetical way of life, a life of simplicity, renunciation, and sacrifice for the love of God to be able to love him with all his heart. He takes up his cross every day and follows Christ (Luke 9:23). He loses his life in this world for the sake of God (Mark 8:35), seeking the things that are above, not the pleasures of the earth (Col. 3:1-2). He loves the life of the cross, the life of renunciation and sacrifice for the love of God, and so he crucifies himself to the world and its delights (Gal. 6:14). He is crucified to the world, and the world to him (Gal. 6:14). Thus he lives like a new man (Eph. 4:22-24), a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17), in the midst of this old world around him, which he is not to uncritically imitate.

If I live like this, I am a witness in the darkness of this world, showing the way of life

to those who are lost in the confusion of the pleasures of the flesh and of life (Phil 2:15).

I will then be able to say with St. Paul, “For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ” (Phil. 3:8). This is how I should live in this world, of living.