The House of Quiet

Hutt News, Volume XII, Issue 19, 20 October 1948, Page 12

The House of Quiet

“AS GOOD AS ... ”

(Contributed by the Hutt \ alley

Ministers’ Fraternal.)

It is surprising how many folk start to defend themselves when religion is being discussed. Talk about golf and they’ll confess to a terrific handicap. Mention fishing and they’ll shrug their shoulders. Cooking and gardening produce similar results. But when religion enters the conversation it is a different matter —“I’m as good as . . is the usual formula, implying, of course, that the speaker is not only as good but far better than his less favoured fellows, which is, 'of course, rather silly. What is the use of judging our lives by comparison with the lives of folk who are. totally different from us? You may remember the apocryphal story concerning the farmer who accused his grocer of giving him I short weight in sugar, and found to his dismay that the grocer,, having lost his pound weight, was using on the scales one of the pounds of butter with which the farmer had supplied him.

A Standard Necessary The only satisfactory means of ensuring correct weight is the use of standard weights. Comparison with something that may or may not be the weight required is not good enough. You* drink your milk because it conforms to an absolute standard of purity—not because it is as fresh as the milk next door. Tlie fact that your chairs are as good or better than some belonging to other folk will not help you much unless they are first of all judged by what chairs ought to be—strong enough to hold your weight. Life would be in a hopeless jumble unless we had reliable standards. We are continually being reminded by Industry that the only commodities that are really dependable are the ones that conform to agreed standards: And, of course, that is the way it should be when we are thinking in terms of character rather than commerce. It isn’t good enough for our lives to compare favourably with others. We must find an absolute standard for life.

Only One Standard

Obviously the person who can be expected to know best whether his goods are up to standard is the man who makes them. He alone knows exactly what he is trying to produce. If he is making chairs for the schoolroom he will certainly work to a different standard from what he would use if he were preparing dining-room furniture. In the making of- men God alone can be expected to know just what He is trying to produce. And the Standard He has set is the Man, Christ Jesus. “Let this mind be in you, which was -in

Christ Jesus. . . Which means that the only comparison we can draw with honesty is between our lives and the life of Jesus from what we know of it in the Gospel record. The trouble is that when we do make such a comparison, the result is rather upsetting. The imperfections of our little lives are seen in all their plainness. It would be so much easier to draw flattering comparisons between ourselves and folk who, because they haven’t had the same advantages, don’t make so favourable a showing, but that isn’t good enough for our Maker. The only life that is acceptable in His sight is the one that has been made anew through coming into touch with Jesus Christ.

Impracticable?

Which all sounds very idealistic, but will be met with all sorts of objections. It is generally accepted that there are very few who show in tlieir lives a character that is anything like that of Jesus, the Son of God. The confusing truth seems to be that those who pride themselves most on their “goodness” make even more apparent the flaws in their lives that make them so . un-Cliristlike. And what is the use of being expected to conform to a Standard that can never be attained? So we find well-meaning people admitting the high claims of Jesus Christ, but excusing themselves from following Him, because of the hopelessness of getting anywhere near His demands. But that is just where the Christian religion makes its contribution to life. _To all who would live the sort of life that God intended them to live there is the promise of the power they need to make them like the Christ. What makes difference is that Jesus, Himself the Ideal, comes alongside the life-in-the-making and provides the impetus necessary to make something up to standard. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.”