The Combination

This morning in my inbox I found a double can of whoop-ass.

First, A.W. hit me with this little gem:

It is doubtful whether we can be Christian in anything unless we are Christian in everything. To obey Christ in one or two or ten instances and then in fear of consequences to back away and refuse to obey in another is to cloud our life with the suspicion that we are only fair-weather followers and not true believers at all. To obey when it costs us nothing and refuse when the results are costly is to convict ourselves of moral trifling and gross insincerity....

Then, through the Daily Dig, Dietrich Bonhoeffer had this to say:

Humanly speaking, it is possible to understand the Sermon on the Mount in a thousand different ways. But Jesus knows only one possibility: simple surrender and obedience - not intrepreting or applying it, but doing and obeying it. That is the only way to hear his words. He does not mean for us to discuss it as an ideal. He really means for us to get on with it.

Ouch.

"Be doers of the Word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves." – James 1:23