Willingly not Grudgingly

Willingly not Grudgingly

So over the past week or so,after reading Matt’s blog on being leaders and leading willingly not grudgingly I stumbled across a verse that really reminded me of this. That verse was
2 Corinthians 9:5

5 So I thought I should send these brothers ahead of me to make sure the gift you promised is ready. But I want it to be a willing gift, not one given grudgingly.

In this verse, Paul is talking about how he wanted the gift from Corinth to be one that is given willingly, not grudgingly which is similar to what Matt wrote about earlier. Doing some more further reading into Paul's letters to various churches I came to an interesting conclusion.

In the book Galatians(i think) Paul emphasizes how we are no longer saved by the law but by our faith in Jesus Christ and how circumcision doesn’t matter. In the old covenant, we were saved by following the commandments and by the law, however in the new covenant we are saved through our faith. In one of the verses(I can’t remember which one) Paul explains how the old covenant laws are all summed up by one from the new covenant, Love your neighbour as yourself. Now, you may think, well ok this is a way to follow the old laws and to keep God happy. However, I think that loving your neighbour as yourself is in fact keeping the old laws, but does more than just that.

Laws are made to be followed. For example: it may be the law to not lie to anyone, but if you’re upset with the person, or you don’t want to take responsibility, you might break the law, but if you decide not to and are still upset over it, you have followed the law grudgingly. This means that even though you followed the law you did it unwillingly. Now, I’ve had a long record of lying because I didn’t want to take responsibility for my actions, but one day I decided not to. I missed the first two periods of class because I slept in. I could have forged a note to the office telling them that I was sick, or had a doctors appointment, but I didn’t. Instead, I decided to call my Mom to tell her that I slept in. She still disliked it, but (thank God) she took it a lot better and understood that I was responsible enough to tell her and not lie. Now the difference from the previous case was that even though I also followed the law, I loved my mother and as a result, I told her willingly because I respected her and wanted her to know.

When I first became Christian, at about the same time last year, I just followed the laws blindly. I didn’t steal, lie or murder because God said that it was wrong. It was very black and white to me. God said no, so I shouldn’t do it. Now that I’m much further in my faith and more mature I see that we should not do these things because God said so, but rather because we love God and we love his people.

Love allows us to do things willingly for others and defines what being selfless is all about. Which is why when Paul said that loving your neighbour as yourself sums up the law, I believe that he is correct. Yet, I believe that by doing it this way and seeing it as love rather than a law, which is something that has to be followed, and as something that we willingly do, rather than we grudgingly do, we come to love one another and respect each other. This is what I believe how God intended for us to treat one another. As brothers and sisters through love, rather than through law.

Willingly not Grudgingly

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