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To Live is Christ and to Die is Gain |
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Written by Fr. Christopher Metropulos
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For
the first three centuries of the existence of the Christian Church, believers
in Jesus were living everyday with the knowledge that their faith in Jesus
Christ may just cost them their lives. Many times this is exactly what
happened. Those who gave their lives for Christ in the arenas of Rome were called martyrs.
The
word "martyr" comes from the ancient Greek word "martyria" and literally means
"witness." It is revealing that the first Christians considered those who gave
their lives for their faith, rather than to deny the Lord and save their own
skins, heroes and "martyrs" or "witnesses." These brave men and women (and
sometimes even children during the darkest days of persecution) were witnesses
by their faithfulness to Christ even unto death.
But doesn't the Holy Scriptures teach us that we are all to be "witnesses" for
Christ? Yes, in fact the Lord's last command to His Apostles was that they
would be "witnesses" to "Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and unto the end
of the earth." (Acts 1:8)
So, does this mean we are all to die for our faith in Christ? Well, yes it
does, but not always in the way our first brothers and sisters witnessed their
commitment to Christ. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the famous German Lutheran theologian
executed by Hitler in the waning days of World War 2, said in his book "The
Cost of Discipleship" "when Christ calls a man, He bids him to come and die."
But "die" how? Surely this doesn't mean physical death. Well it did in
Bonhoeffer's case and in the case of countless others who refused to compromise
their allegiance to Christ in the face of certain physical death.
But in our everyday lives in a society that isn't executing Christians, what
does it mean to be a "martyr" a witness for Christ in our lives, in our day, in
our communities?
Let me give you three broad areas of opportunity to witness to your Christian
faith in life that is very much a dying.
First, there is a dying to a self centered life. Can anyone read the
Gospels and miss the teaching of Jesus that a Christian life is a life lived in
serving others? Christ Himself says that "the Son of Man did not come to be
served but to serve."(Matthew 20:28) Our Christian witness is seen when we let
our self centered lifestyle "die" in the transforming light of the selfless
witness of Christ Himself. But you know the most wonderful thing occurs when we
do "die" to that self centered life. We, ourselves, are served by others and we
are touched by the peace of Christ that passes human understanding.
Second, there is a dying to sin. When we allow the grace of God and our
faith in Christ to transform our lives, we find that the behavior we once had
begins to change. Some have experienced this change in a dramatic fashion.
Others have seen the effects of their faith in Christ over a life time. Either
way, we find as we learn to love Christ more than our own temporary pleasure
that a lifestyle of sin begins to be transfigured into a lifestyle of righteous
choices and actions.
Finally, there is a dying to self righteousness. There is something
about an authentic journey of faith that has no room for spiritual pride. The
days when we'd be looking for an "atta boy" when we did what was right are long
past as we allow the grace of God to allow us to see ourselves as we really are
- people who must continually cry out "Lord, have mercy." The fact is, the
closer our spiritual journey takes us to being like our Lord Jesus, the more we
see we have so much further to go. Instead of our spiritual lives producing spiritual
pride, we are all the more humble and convinced of our daily need for God's
gentle grace.
In the end, all of us who call ourselves Christians will leave a witness behind
our lives. Like I said last week, we will leave a legacy. The only question remains,
will our witness lead others to faith in Christ or will it drive others away
from Christ.
Lord, have mercy!
Fr. Christopher Metropulos is founder,
host, and executive director of the Orthodox Christian Network (OCN) and the
Come Receive The Light national Orthodox Christian radio program. He is pastor
of St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church of Fort Lauderdale,
Florida,
where he and his wife Georgia are raising their six children.
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