Live Your Theology

In his brief but profound work “The Way of Man“, Martin Buber wrote:

“At first, a man should himself realize that conflict-situations between himself and others are nothing but the effects of conflict-situations in his own soul; then he should try to overcome this inner conflict, so that afterwards he may go out to his fellow men and enter into new, transformed relationships with them.”

I am not sure of anyone has summarized the goal of the walk in the Abrahamic faiths quite so well.

This is not unlike what God told Cain after the rejected offering:

“If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

We already know the unfortunate end of that story – a brother, murdered in a fit of anger.  This is a stark reminder of what can happen when we do not keep our souls in check.  In fact we can take this back even further, to Adam in the garden.  Therein lies a picture that fits quite well with our current situation:

“Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground”  (Gen. 2:7)

And further:

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.

“Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;

By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.””  Gen 3:17-19

Man is but dust, dirt.  The dirt of the earth is now cursed.  And now this dirt-man must by the sweat of his brow toil against the dirt if he is to produce fruit.  Dirt working against dirt; us working against ourselves; this is our internal conflict.

Some say we are not called to works.  This depends on the perceived end-result.  Paul tells us that we are saved by grace through faith and not by works.  So comes salvation.  James tells us that faith without works is dead.  There is no contradiction here – only different aims.

We are to have faith and works together to be sure; faith for our salvation, and works for our sanctification.  Even if we believe that in a moment salvation can be attained and forever secure a place in heaven, the “work” of sanctification has only just begun.

And yet some say “but it is God that does the work in us.”  Certainly.  He does His part.  Our work is to do our part.  The scriptures call us to persevere in the face of trails and adversity, to flee our lusts, to overcome temptation.  We are expected to act accordingly, not merely pray and hope.  This is our work, our portion, our contribution in the purification of our souls that we have been entrusted with by God.  If we do not undertake this work we are called to, we will lose hope and lose heart, and in that process we lose our faith.  Thus faith without works becomes dead.

We shall pass through a refining fire in the end, every one of us.  This is why Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians:

“Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor”

and further:

“If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.  If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”

Salvation is not the goal of our belief; it is merely our starting point.  It is where we take the baton with God running along side us, and we run the race, we fight the good fight.  If we do not run, we do not grow, and the dirt-against-dirt conflict within us will not produce fruit.

If we neglect this necessary work on our own souls in this life, we will indeed toil to produce fruit.  We will fail to love properly, and thus fail in the highest calling.