Choices determine your destiny. Knowledge affects your choices. Learning is the path to knowledge. What do you know? What you know should determine how you act.
As Jesus sat with his disciples around the Passover table, He knew that He had come from God. Jesus also knew that He was to return to God. Because of this knowledge that Jesus had, He chose to get up from the table, place upon Himself the cloak of servant hood.
Next, He knelt at the feet of the one that would bitterly betray him, as well as the men who argued over position. Jesus’ foot washing didn’t leave out the braggart turned coward, nor the one’s who would let sleep take precedence over presence while He walked through His darkest hour alone.
It was with unconditional love that Jesus knelt and gently washed the dirt and feces off of the feet of the one’s that would cause Him heartache. In spite of all the failings that were ensconced in each of these men, Jesus, with unswerving love and devotion set before us an example that we as Christ followers are to exemplify.
Everyday Choices and You
Jesus wants us to serve Him and others with a servant heart filled with unconditional love. Our knowledge of Jesus and the life He lived should determine the direction our lives should take. Jesus’ act of service was love in action. An example that we are to follow. Do our actions exemplify the love of Jesus?
The choices lie in front of us as we face daily life. Choices that need to be placed through the grid of our knowledge of God and the commands He wants us to follow.
When faced with disparaging words from another of like faith, how do we react? Would we be able to serve that brother or sister? Or would cherishing a grudge be more our “go-to”? When our opinions are challenged, do we listen with grace and willingness to learn from someone who we feel are less knowledgeable about the topic?
Or does our pride get in the way of changing our opinions that have proven to be false? Will our love for another be seen in action when we have been criticized? How about when we have been reprimanded or corrected?
Have you been misunderstood? And then borne the brunt of those motives that had been placed upon you erroneously? How did you react? Loving that person through these circumstances, as well as numerous other situations is the way God wants us to react.
The Key to Our Choices
The devil will be there to tempt you to act differently. To give them what they “deserve”.
“I mean really, you were trying to be nice and thoughtful and they treat you like poison. So why not ignore them, gouge them with barbed remarks or return ‘evil for evil.'”
However, we are to be known for our love for one another. We must resist the devil and his ploys that seem all too rational to human thinking. I’m not saying it is always easy, but a continual trust and surrender to God’s control in our lives will be the key that enables us to base our choices off the knowledge that we know. Not off the emotions that we feel. The actions and ways of the Christ follower is to be that of love and service for others.
In fact, it was that same evening Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, that Jesus explicitly stated that His command for His followers were to love each other.
In His discourse of the vine and the branches in John 15, Jesus explains that abiding in Him is a necessary component of living a life that will bring glory to God. Furthermore, Jesus shares that abiding means obeying his commands. Then Jesus says in John 15:12,
“This is my commandment, that ye love love one another as I have loved you.”
Informed Choices through Knowledge
Jesus was wanting his followers to learn. He imparted knowledge so that they and we, might be able to make informed choices in our everyday life. He wants us to have that connection with the Father that He enjoys. That connection is formed through the knowledge that we obtain from the truths that we learn about God and His character and how we choose to act on that knowledge. Consequently, knowledge brings connection with the Father and Jesus , which in turn informs our choices as we abide or remain in Him.
Would life be radically different if our attitudes and actions were run through the grid of what we know instead of how we feel? We know that we are come from God. In fact, we are God’s. We also know that each of us will return to God. These two specific facts are what we are told in the Scriptures that Jesus knew when he donned the cloak of a servant and ministered to the very ones that would leave Him in his darkest hour.
In addition, we know that to abide in Christ is to obey His commands. The command Jesus specified this same evening when He exemplified a servant heart was to love one another. This knowledge behooves us to examine our choices, our attitudes and actions. When we return to the Father, will He be able to say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant?
Will our lives have been a testament to the servant heart and unconditional love that Jesus wants us all to live out? Are you letting your knowledge determine your choices? Do you have the knowledge you need to make informed choices that glorify the Father?
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