THE INNER LIFE

 

The Inner Life         24 Nov 2012

when one considers the millions who call themselves Christians, the main impression one gets is that in our time the Christian religion consists almost exclusively in going to church on Sunday mornings. I know there are exceptions, but we have to be realistic: the church has very little to say to young people –they are bored by church services and preaching, and so they turn to other things. Yet people are vaguely aware that there is something wrong with their inner life. And even if they don’t go to their pastor or priest about it, they do seek help, often by going to a psychiatrist. It is true that once the inner person really changes, everything else will change. But that will come about through God, not through people. 

Christ taught that there should be a complete change in every person, and that this change should begin in our inner being. Peter and the apostles taught the same at Pentecost.

 (Act 2:37-38 )When the people asked Peter, “What should we do?” he said, “Believe, repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus.” And when they responded, the inner change that took place carried over into the practical and economic areas of their lives. They laid everything at the feet of the apostles

and no longer owned anything. Everyone gave up his property voluntarily, yet since each one shared everything with the others, no one suffered need. 

For our time, too, we believe in a new society like this, brought about by a change that starts in our inner

being. When God enters our inner life, the change he brings will also affect our outer life. If our Christianity is a religion for Sunday morning only, it will remain shallow and empty.

 

               
                 Bible verse 2 Cor 5:14-19

¹⁴ For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. ¹⁵ And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. ¹⁶ So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:^[a] The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

There are hypocrites in the church but there will be no hypocrites in heaven.