Dead in Christ?
Are you a dead man walking?
My girls and I are studying leaves in Botany this week. It’s more fascinating than you’d think! For instance, in the fall, when leaves exchange their bright greens for autumn hues of red, orange, and yellow…those colors are actually the true color those leaves were all along. The chlorophyll was just dark and powerful enough to cover the other colors during the spring and summer months. As the chlorophyll decays, the leaves true colors shine through.
So imagine my excitement this week when my friends and I got to the “It’s Not Easy Being Green” segment in our DVD series, Living the Love of Jesus by Kathy Troccoli and Dee Brestin. These ladies took this botanical topic up a Biblical notch! I highly recommend the book accompanying this series, written by the same ladies and titled, Becoming a Woman Transformed by The Colors of His Love.
Now chlorophyll is necessary in the life cycle of a leaf, but what if we take its characteristic of dominating the leaf to the point of masking that leaf’s true color and give this process a human application? This is what Dee Brestin and Kathy Troccoli did in this lesson. They asked us to associate the green of chlorophyll with the negative characteristic of pride.
We know from Proverbs 8:13 that pride tops the list of things the Lord hates. In 1 John 2:16, John tells us to die to the pride of life.
Pride does its best to wash over God’s artistry in our lives. Sure, it’s sometimes awkward and painful being branded a “Christian,” but the way we live our lives should proclaim Christ to others.
The authors suggest we reread the story of Esther and wonder to ourselves at how silent she and Mordacai were about their Jewish heritage. For seven years they hid their religious views from Xerxes and Haman. How do you think they may have compromised their faith in order to keep it under wraps like that? If you really think about it, Mordacai seemed to have his own struggles with pride. He really isn’t shining the Lord’s colors of faith and humility. Rather he’s exhibiting a whole lot of fear, pride and hate. This Bible story is quite opposite from those of Daniel and the lions, David and the giant, and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo in the fiery furnace. Oh, to have faith to make a stand like these!
How does that old question go? “Would there be enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian?”
Luke 16:15, And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.
If being a dead man walking means being dead to sin and alive with Christ, it also means the difference between living life in black and white or high definition color. How can we shed the pride of life and be who God intended us to be? For this kind of spiritual growth we need a plan. We need to root ourselves in God’s word and seek His presence through prayer, walking in the spirit, and letting His love color everything we say and do.
Esther and Mordacai’s story had a happy ending. But it came out that way because they finally turned everything (fear on both parts/pride on Mordacai’s part) over to God and stepped out in faith and humility, depending upon God and prayer, because the rest of the Jewish lives in Persia depended upon them.
In a culture that rejects God and embraces everything but truth, God’s people must shed their garbage and live for Him. Otherwise we’re just dead men walking. Blending in, colorless. Not much of a challenge to the evil one. Not much good to anyone.
God’s love changes lives. He can change us, and He can change others through us. He already defeated sin on the cross, so we have no more excuses.
1 John 4:4, Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
