“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
_Jesus Christ, Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:24)
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Walking a fine line is a tough thing today.
Having said that, I think we all can agree that we live in a complex world and that complexity tests our faith and values to the max as we try to survive and even thrive along side others who do not share our faith and our values.
What we must not do is be pragmatic.
For the Christ-follower, there is very little gray. It usually boils down to one of two choices. There’s not a lot of win/win in the teachings of Jesus. For Jesus it was mostly either/or.
For him, you don’t hold your nose and walk through the sewer to get to the roses. For Jesus the means doesn’t justify the end.
However, He does understand walking the fine line–He called it the narrow way and He said, “there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:14)
So how do we navigate this complex world we live in today without compromising our core values and beliefs? How do we find the narrow way that leads to life?
A good place to begin is found in the quotation of Jesus I began this reflection with today. It suggests these two questions:
- Who do I love?
- Where do my loyalities lie?
When you’re faced with walking that fine line between your faith and values and the expectations of those who do not share them, being guided by who you most truly love and are loyal too will keep you on the straight and narrow.
And the comfort in this is that no matter how much it may cost you (and it will eventually cost you), you will have suffered loss for someone and something that is worth the sacrifice.
The ONE THING 