No, I'm not referring to your ability to play in the NBA, but to your ability to prioritize God over all others. It seems virtually all people (including a disturbing number of professing Believers) are more concerned with how others, rather than God perceive them. Being held in "high esteem" by others is of paramount importance. Of course, Christians have their geometry all wrong with this approach. We need to relegate the horizontal relationships to being contingent on establishing a proper vertical perspective.
This post was spawned by a discussion in our adult small group at church. As Christians so much emphasis is placed on the horizontal activities in the form of ministries, volunteering, hospitality, evangelism and general kindness and concern for others. I am by no means disparaging these things, but I am minimizing them to a degree. But, before you just dismiss me as a curmudgeon (or even Amish) here me out.
It's not hard to convey an authentic holiness (holy defined: set apart for God) by performing any of the above-mentioned activities. But that holiness could be more perception than reality. For example, many people other than Christians would agree to the positive nature of these activities without having any particular religious views at all. There are even atheists who would affirm the "inherent goodness" of helping your fellow man. So, although it could be said that all true Christians would (should) abound in the horizontal behaviors, the reverse in the form of all people who volunteer, are kind, are hospitable, etc. are Christians; is not a true statement. I would go further and say that Believers can (and do) perform these activities together with the "world" (think Civil Rights Movement of the 60's). So we (Christians) can work in tandem with unbelievers in a myriad of causes displaying kindness and general charity, but let me show you where the fissure occurs.
It occurs when the vertical is introduced. Essentially, when Jesus and his exclusivity is introduced. Believers are as welcome as anyone else when it comes to saving baby Harp Seals, but I'm not sure how many Greenpeace folks want to hear "... the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Unfortunately, there are many professing Christians who don't want to hear that (but that's another post for another day). Yes, if we love the Lord, we are going to love others and manifest that love. But we must demonstrate our vertical love first and make it as consistent as any ministry involvement we might have. We need to emphasize the things we do for God that are not in the "limelight". Prayer, personal Bible reading, quiet time with God just meditating on His blessings or maybe His creation through a peaceful walk, confession, evangelism, defending the faith and calling sin out; are all ways that demonstrate a vertical "fear of the Lord".
Another way of explaining the vertical would be considering it a form of personal worship. Worship can only be vertical, as there is only One worthy of worship. I am not referring (only) to church attendance. In my opinion, that is only a small percentage of worship. The vast majority of worship is self-initiated and can be summed up in a word: holiness. I defined it as being set apart for God earlier as it can mean many things to different people. Unfortunately, for many, it is synonymous with perfection. As it pertains to us; it's not that at all. Obviously, as it pertains to God, it does connote perfection, as He is the embodiment of perfection. Set apart for God and from the world is what demonstrates holiness. As already stated; it's not perfection. It's not even particularly difficult for a true Christian. It just requires the determination that nothing is more important than my relationship with Jesus. Therefore, I will conduct myself with the singular goal of pleasing Him that gave all for me. Not to earn His love (I already have that) but to demonstrate my love for Him. How others along the horizontal plane view me matters not.
There are many in this post-modern (I would say post-Christian even) world, who consider this view a bit hard to take. Words like zealot, self-righteous, judgmental, and Fundamentalist (noooo!) come to mind. It's as though the word holy itself is just too...something. Sort of like Hell or homosexual (must be the H words, they just smack you in the face). I think there are a fair number of Believers who would benefit from a bit of a smack now and again. Doing a bunch of "things" in God's name doesn't make you right with God; spending a bunch of time with God will. We all need to spend less time scanning the "horizon" to see how we compare to other Christians and spend more time looking straight up to Him. He'll use us as He sees fit to further his kingdom.
