You Don’t Have to Make it Up

It is very tempting, especially living in a society preoccupied with individualism, to make up your own rules when it comes to your relationship with God. “Nobody can tell me how I should believe!” While we do have free will to either believe or not believe, once we choose to believe in Christ as God, we are called to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Christ. (See Mark 8.34) In practice, that means we should struggle to avoid our own understanding of God and fight the temptation to make up our own rules about life. If we are going to deny ourselves, giving up our own logic is the first place to start.

Today the Church commemorates Saint Simon the Zealot, one of the Apostles of Christ. Being a zealot in today’s world brings with it a whole lot of negative implications, but in the ancient days, a zealot was someone totally dedicated to God. Since the first days of the Church, it mattered ‘what’ we believed and ‘what’ we preached and ‘how’ we lived. It was the Apostles, guided into all truth by the Holy Spirit (see John 16.13) after Pentecost, that established the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of the Church. After being baptized, the new Christians, “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ [n]doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” (Acts 2.42)

Lately, I have met many good and believing Christians who do not subscribe to this way of thinking. For many, even many in the Church today, it is encouraged to create our own way of life. This is not done out of malice, but in trying to avoid, as Saint Paul says, “the traditions of men.” As we read in today’s reading from Acts, Saint Paul said, “For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.” Here’s the entire passage.

Brethren, God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the off-scouring of all things. I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me. – 1 Corinthians 4.9-16

So, stop making it up as you go. Stop creating your own rules for the faith. Stop making up your own interpretation of the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit has already guided the Apostles into the whole truth, and they have already given us how we ought to live. If you have any doubts about whether we are living according to the ancient teachings, today’s Bishops are the successors of the Apostles, and they are here to protect us from just making it up day by day. We can trust them.