Our Commonsense

What got me to this idea I'm about to write about was inspired by this quote from Oswald Chambers from his book "Studies In The Sermon On The Mount":

"The conflict for the Christian is not a conflict of sin, but a conflict over the natural life being turned into the spiritual life. The natural life is not sinful, the disposition that rules the natural life is sinful; when God alters that disposition , we have to turn the natural life into the spiritual by a steady process of obedience to God, and it takes spiritual concentration on God to do it."

I have been time and time again trying to understand the difference between my natural life and my spiritual life and how I can live in the spiritual all the time. According to the dictionary, "disposition" is 'a person's inherent qualities of mind and character.' It's my mind and my character that need to be devoted to the obedience of Jesus. But at so many times, I am stopped by my sense of self, by my commonsense.

Reading the Sermon on the Mount and studying it is a tough task for sure. Diving into what Jesus is really talking about and how it relates to my relationship with him, always stirs in me a frustration with myself but also a complete LOVE for His teachings. (And I hope when you read the Scriptures, you also fall more in love with it.) I begin to understand the Why, which motivates me to the figure out the How.

And today it's my battle with my commonsense. It's thinking "Am I acting out of my own thinking, or am I thinking out of what Jesus wants?" It's not just "What Would Jesus Do?" It must be what would Jesus Say, what would he Think, how would he Act and how would he Love? He had a reversal of thinking to the world. And he asks us to think like him. It's the world versus Jesus. The world - our commonsense - says we should look after ourselves, think about how we're going to live and what we will save and that that matters.

But look at Matthew chapter 6 verse 25:
"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?"

Do you see what he's doing? He making a stark difference from the commonsense to how we need to think. Look at those who you work with or go to school with, see what "carries" them day by day. The daily grind is all about self-preservation, especially today. Think about it. And I have to ask, are we really like that? Are we anxious about our clothes, our rent or mortgage, our money? Jesus says a few verses before that we cannot serve both God and money or mammon. But what is mammon? The Greek word mammon is a Semitic word for money or possessions.

But Chambers says it quite well: "It is the system of civilized life that organizes itself without considering God." We as believers consider God. Right? We are to organize our thoughts, actions and character WITH considering God. Although our commonsense tells us not to. And that is the battle (for me at least).

I'm struck with the image of Jesus standing on the edge of the Sea of Galilee looking up the hill to all his listeners and saying to them "If you want to follow me, you must disobey your commonsense. The way you think you ought think is not the way you should think at all. Come, let me show you how to think and live your life according to my Father in Heaven."

He teaches a doctrine of division, a doctrine of detachment. I am getting that. I am floored by it. I am now looking at the rest of today as a way to align my disposition to be altered and changed by God. To his character. I will look today to be in total concentration of God - not in my commonsense but continue my steady process of obedience. I will ask "Is this the kind of thing that Jesus Christ is after or the kind of thing Satan is after?"