I just now pulled on my garden coat. A faint aroma of smoke was perceptible. Smoke, from the bonfire hubby and I had had a week ago.
Sure, I had been engulfed in clouds of billowing bonfire smoke last weekend … but it hadn’t been constant or continual. It had only been as the breeze periodically blew my way.
And, I had washed my garden coat the very next day.
And, my garden coat has been airing out for almost a week now!
And yet … a distinct aroma of bonfire smoke lingered. Hardly perceptible … yet still there.
As I was growing up, and throughout my college years, I had regular Bible teaching which reinforced the idea that all of us in church were the “good” people. We did all the “right” religious things … we all looked the “right” religious way … we said the “right” religious things.
And all those other people … well, those were the “bad” people. They weren’t in church like all of us “good” people were.
We were “good” … and all those other people, they were the “bad” people.
This teaching was like sitting around a blazing bonfire, with clouds of smoke wafting over and permeating my mind and attitude. In my mind, I thought I was so good … because I was religious. I was one of the “good” people.
As a result, this caused me to have a very condescending attitude towards everyone. Like the lingering aroma of smoke on my garden coat.
People can tell. People can tell when we feel like we are “better” than them. People can tell when, in our mind, we are secretly “judging” and “condemning” them.
People can tell. Every bit as much as someone can “pick up” on the smell of bonfire smoke on clothing.
And the more we “sit around the bonfire,” the worse the smell of “smoke” on our “clothing.”
Examine the teaching you are sitting under. Is the teaching reinforcing ideas of us “good” religious people … vs. … all those “bad” worldly people out there?
If so, then the aroma of “bonfire smoke” is traveling with you wherever you go. And people can tell.
There are no “good” religious people. We all are “bad” people.
Every . single . one . of . us!
Only Jesus Christ, and Jesus alone is “good” … the rest of us … we all are “bad” people. “Bad” people whom Jesus has forgiven, and whom Jesus has great mercy, love, grace, and patience with.
“Bad” people whom Jesus is working to change … and to renew our minds … and to daily transform us to look more and more like Him.
As we surrender to Jesus’s work in our life, our lives will become characterized by humility and love.
Love. A fragrant aroma that’s worth having!
“Be imitators of God, therefore … and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering.” – Ephesians 5:1-2
“For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.” – 2 Corinthians 2:15
“By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” – John 13:35
