Gonna find out who’s naughty and nice.
Did you know you can go to http://www.claus.com and check out your naughty or nice rating? Find out how Santa has ranked you. I am not too humble to say that I was “super nice.” Maybe everyone is.
There’s an idea in youth ministry philosophy that we (the professionals) are simply trying to create “good little boys and girls,” people who would escape the naughty list and find themselves instead on the nice list. That we’re confusing teens with the idea that works and good behavior produces holiness. Here is an example of this idea.
I think most of our teens are smarter than that. I think they’re discerning enough to know if their youth pastors, Sunday School teachers, etc. have motives to make them behave a certain way or if the desire is to see them pursuing Jesus, and living (as a result) in a way that reflects Him.
Christmas is a time when we celebrate the birth of Jesus as a man. He was born of a virgin on this earth in a humble manger and ultimately died and rose to save us from our sins and deliver us to righteousness, right? And since he delivered us…
“and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.”
Romans 6:18-19 NASB
I think we can note a few things of importance here.
- Freed From Sin – This conversation applies to Christians only. Our goal in youth ministry is to produce Christians. No. Our goal is to produce disciples. Which are Christians who are following Jesus.
- Human Terms – I think Paul means that this talk about “slaves” is a metaphor. So what does it mean?
- Just as slaves are owned by a master, we were “owned” by sin.
- Slaves do what the master orders, or there are consequences. We did what “sin” told us to, or our sin would “beat us up” (keep tempting us and wearing us down).
- You Presented –
- Notice the past tense. This is how you USED to be. As mentioned above, we have been freed from sin.
- YOU gave yourself willingly to it. If you were sold/captured into slavery, it was at your own hands. Your sin is not someone else’s fault.
- So Now – This comes back to the freedom from sin again. Because you are NOW free… We noted the past tense earlier, but this moves us out of the past. Don’t dwell on the shame and guilt of a sinful life and don’t give in to that OLD way; that’s over! Live NOW!
- Slaves to Righteousness – So, what about now? Give yourself over to righteousness.
- Switching metaphors for just a moment- 70% of women still change their last names when married. 10% hyphenate or legally change it but continue to use their maiden names professionally. Only 20% keep their maiden name. (source) When a woman is married, she becomes a new person, a wife. Her identity changes. (I don’t mean to be all misogynistic and anti-feminist by that – a married man becomes a new person as well, a husband… but the name doesn’t change).
- OR ***spoiler alert***- when Anakin Skywalker crossed over to the dark side he became Darth Vader (I guess that’s backwards, since he actually went from good to bad… but anyway). He changed his identity because he was a new person.
- Listen. When we are freed from sin and united with Christ, our identity changes. Ownership changes. We are no longer slaves to sin, but to righteousness- and our Master is now Christ.
- Resulting in Sanctification – What’s the result of giving ourselves to righteousness? Sanctification. That is the PROCESS by which we become holy. It is a process in which we have to learn along the way. This is where this whole idea of producing moralistic teens sounds to me like a good thing – at least as a part of the plan.
So, are you naughty or nice? Remember that none of us is completely righteous (Rom 3:10) and we’ve all sinned (Rom 3:23). And we all still have this struggle (see Romans 7). But with freedom from sin you NOW have and the Holy Spirit in you, are you naughty or nice? Are you being good little boys and girls? You should be.
Merry Christmas.
baileyplanet 