Virtuous Living

The Jesus of the Bible is so beautiful, noble, and oh, so majestic. Before I came to know Him, He was the kind of person that I would have liked to be. But I also knew how life worked. A person who lived liked Jesus was a fool or a sucker. If people are kind to you, it is only for a season. People are out to take advantage of you. They will use you, abuse you, violate you then toss you aside. That’s what happened to Jesus. After Jesus fed, healed, and taught people how to live a virtuous life, the people mocked Him, beat Him, turned their back on Him, and murdered Him. Jesus lived such an honorable life, and even died a virtuous death, but no one spoke up for Him and He died alone. That’s life in a nutshell and that was my view of life. Jesus had a lot of the qualities that I thought were so attractive, but if this was the end, there was no reason for me to live like Him.

That’s where my life hung for many years until I realized that wasn’t the end of Jesus’ story. Had I been less cynical, I would have noticed that the stone had been rolled away, the tomb was empty, and the words, “He is not here; He has risen, just as He said. Come and see…” should have screamed out at me. Like Jesus’ disciples, I guess I needed to be reminded of what He said.

I still need to be reminded. But now I need to be reminded that because Jesus allowed Himself to suffer death, the Father has now crowned Him with glory and honor and has put EVERYTHING under His feet (Hebrews 2:7-10, Philippians 2:8-11). I’ve been told that this is my future as well (I Corinthians 15:50-58, Ephesians 2:4-7).

With this in mind, these days I don’t mind being a sucker or a fool—as long as it is for Jesus’ sake!