The Apostle Paul wrote, "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything." (1 Corinthians 6:12) I believe we who call ourselves Christians often use these verses to get ourselves off the hook for all sorts of activities. However, I feel like we sometimes forget the included principles of "profitable" and the clause of "mastered by anything." If we insert the meaning of the Greek phrases this verse could be re-written, "All things are permissible for me, but not all things make me better off. All things are permissible for me, but I will not be ruled over by anything as if it were a king." Given the confines of the First Commandment (Exodus 20:3-6), anything at all in our lives that we think about or allow to have more influence over us than God or His Word has become for us a king and we have fallen short of the principle of 1 Corinthians 6:12.
This idea carries the principle behind this series of meditations for Advent. I have been struggling in an area of my life for several years and only last week made a separation. It has not been an activity considered "sin" in the classical sense and one in which I have even used Scripture to defend on many occasions. However, the Holy Spirit showed me that I was not "better off" but worse and that in many ways it had begun to rule over me as if it were a king. The Holy Spirit used this last facet to finally break open my eyes to my need to replace it with something of true worth.
Sociologists say it takes 21 days to break a habit. They also say that if you stop something or remove it from your life you have to replace it with something else in its place to have the best chance of success. Jesus seemed to hint at this fact through His remarks in Luke 11:24-26.
I believe nothing else in the whole world has greater value to this end than the Word of God. Psalms 138:2 says "You have exalted above all things Your Name and Your Word." Other translations render this thought that God has exalted His Word above even His name. This fact should startle us given the jealousy God repeatedly demonstrates throughout the entirety of the Scriptures.
Given the need for at least 21 days the Holy Spirit sent me to Psalm 119. It has 22 stanzas meditating on the supreme value and worth of God's Word. Each stanza is centered on one letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is interesting to note that Hebrew letters have their own meaning and are not simply vocalic consonants (several do act as vowels). In this fashion Hebrew shares some facets of graphic languages like Chinese and some facets of simpler phonetically written languages like English. This component of Hebrew is probably impossible to carry over in translation but provides great "spice" if you will to the potential meaning if we take the time to meditate on the Scriptures as we are indeed commanded to.
Advent is a Church season in which the Church readies itself for the arrival of the King on Christmas Day. What better way to prepare ourselves for His arrival than to rid ourselves of the things we put in the King's stead and replace them with the one thing the King holds more dearly than anything else? Jesus Himself said, "Heaven and Earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away" (Luke 21:33) and also, "Sanctify them in the Truth--Your Word is Truth." (John 17:17)
In summary, my goals for the Advent series is twofold: 1) sweep the houses of our lives of the dirt and dust of our lives, and 2) put into our lives in its place something of supreme worth to make our hearts and minds a suitable dwelling place for the arrival of The King. I am on this quest myself and my prayer is that we may be mutually edified, "coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God [and] built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 2:3-5)
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