What To Invest Our Lives In

Jesus compared the Kingdom of God to treasure hidden in a field.  Someone, knowing that the treasure was hidden in the field, sold all they had and bought the field.

Roman law at the time of Jesus provided that if you discovered treasure on land owned by someone else, you had to give the owner half of the treasure.  Similarly, Jewish law placed limitations on the ownership rights of the discoverer of treasure on land that someone else owned.  Consequently, the reason why the discoverer purchases the land is to acquire ownership of the entire treasure.  The discoverer purchased what appeared to others to be a parcel of little value, because they knew that the field was of infinite value, due to the hidden treasure

Followers of Jesus in ancient times were often called "People of the Way." Life is about a series of choices and decisions.  We all have one life to invest, and we make choices of what we will invest our life in.  Those who live under the Lordship of Christ in the Kingdom of God follow the "Way" of Christ exemplified in the cross; centered in service to others.  This appears to human culture as of little value; like an empty field.  People of the way know that it is worth investing all of our life; because we know the story of the cross and the nature of God revealed therein

God's Nature

God's fundamental nature: what ultimately drives God to do what God does, is creativity.  God creates things.  And this creative power is an end in itself.  God created the universe billions of years before sentient beings appeared who could perceive it and, ultimately, recognize God as the One who created all things.

God's redemptive activity in Christ was an anomaly necessitated by humanity's sin.  It is an interruption in creativity.  God's desire that we repent and turn to God and become sanctified is not an end in itself; it is a means to the removal of the anomaly so that the infinite creativity in the world can resume.

By analogy, when we choose to build a house, we don't build the house so that one day the roof will leak and require time and energy expended in repairing it.  The leaky roof is an anomaly that prevents the home from being what it is.  We fix the leaky roof, irritated by the interruption in the natural order of things, so we can get back to the business of the home being what it is.

The Illusion of Freedom

Paul's worldview is grounded in the notion of a great cosmic struggle between two principalities and powers: God and evil.  And all of our acts and omissions serve one of these two principalities and powers.  We don't choose between freedom and servitude.  We choose between two masters.  When our actions manifest righteousness, we are serving God.  When our actions manifest sin, we are acting in the service of evil.

Living under the Lordship of Christ means being aware of the two collars that we are able to wear: that of sin and that of righteousness, and choosing to wear the collar of righteousness.  When we first make the decision to live under the Lordship of Christ, we do not discard the sin collar and permanently put on the righteousness collar.  Instead, we begin the process of maximizing the time that we are wearing the righteousness collar and minimizing the time that we wear the sin collar.  Our goal, sanctification, means that we cast off the sin collar for good.  This requires a lifetime of spiritual discipline and practicing the means of grace