Why Serve the Lord? You Can’t Help It. You are Who You are!

Personal Note:  I apologize for not posting for almost a week.  I have just been struggling with writing, but hopefully, we will be getting back on track.  Keep pushing on for Christ.

1 Peter 1:22-23 – “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God…”
Have you ever heard somebody give the excuse, “I can’t help it. It’s just who I am,” when he answers your question of “Why did you do that?” It is actually a pretty common answer that is given by teenagers when questioned by their parents as to why they had a problem at school. You might have even given this answer a few times in your life. In most cases where this excuse is used, the guilty person is usually just trying to get through an awkward situation without having to think or answer the question truthfully. Instead, he just blames it on genetics. But in a select few cases where a person is usually talking about an unusual characteristic about himself (not necessarily in a “Get in Trouble’ situtation), this statement is actually true. Some people just can’t help certain characteristics of themselves coming out – It is just who they are.
For example, if a person owned a wolf as a pet, just like in Call of the Wild by Jack London, and trained it to be obedient to all his commands, to never bite anyone, and to patiently stay calm instead of instinctively hunt and fight, if that master decided to leave it in the woods, the wolf would eventually pick up most of its wolf-like instincts once again. It may retain some of the training, but the wolf would still be a wolf and would act like it. Another more graphic example is with the Siegfried and Roy magic act at the Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV. These men Siegfried and Roy are famous for taming these beautiful white tigers that perform in their magic shows. A few years ago though, one of the tigers actually mauled Roy. Although they had trained the tiger for years to become “domestic,” the tiger still retained some of its natural insticts and attacked the magician. It couldn’t help it; the tiger just did what tigers do.
Now, certainly human beings can have much more control over our impulses than animals, yet just like these animals, if a characteristic is truly part of who we are, it cannot help but show in our lives. Although a pauper may dress like a prince, the actions of the pauper will display that he is a pauper. This idea is spiritually true as well.
In 1 Peter 1:22-23, Peter gave the believers another reason to live obedient righteous lives for Christ, lives that represented what it meant to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, lives that were pure and full of love. The reason he gave was simple – live like a disciple of Jesus Christ because you are a disciple of Jesus Christ. He reminded the believers that they were born again, meaning that they had put away the old sinful ways of the flesh that lead to death and had been raised into the new life in Christ that will never perish. He simply tells them that used to be of perishable seed and have now been born to seed imperishable. Peter understood that a person who has been truly changed by Christ cannot help but begin to reflect the characteristics of Christ; it just flows out naturally, just like a dog will be a dog and a tiger a tiger. I am almost certain that when he wrote this letter he must have thought about what Christ spoke of when warning about false teachers in that they would know them by their fruit. A thistle cannot produces grapes, likewise a vine cannot produce thistles. Each produces its own fruit. Therefore, a person who has been born again to imperishable seed can no longer live to the flesh but begins to show the fruit of the Spirit in his life (love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, self-control, etc. – Galatians 5:22-23). In the same manner, a person who is an unbeliever may show some fruit that looks spiritual but in the end account for nothing without the blood of Jesus Christ changing him from the inside out. He becomes nothing but a dirty cup that is beautiful only on the outside.
You are what you are. If you say you are a disciple of Jesus Christ, then His fruit should be produced through you, for He lives in your heart. You should not need any other reason to live for Christ if you call yourself a disciple – you can’t help it, it’s just who you are.