It’s Not You; It’s Me

Made popular by a famous TV character, this saying has deep truth. It isn’t about breaking up or cancelling a date. What makes this saying true is the relationship between me and the Church. We like to blame the Church for being too strict and chasing me away, but that isn’t true.

Brethren, I am speaking to those who know the law. Do you not know that the law is binding on a person only during his life? Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies she is discharged from the law concerning the husband. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brethren, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit. What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have known sin. I should not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, wrought in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died; the very commandment which promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and by it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

Romans 7.1-14

Saint Paul is teaching us to stop blaming the Church for chasing us away. The Church is the Body of Christ and has been given to us to help us live according to God’s will. Like the Law before it, the Church reminds us how to live. If we choose to ignore the Church, that’s on us.

As the Church teaches in the Didache (Teaching of the Holy Apostles to the Nations) from the 1^st Century, “There are two ways, one of life and one of death.” If we desire to live eternally with God, then we should ‘want to know’ if our choices lead to life or death.

Saint Paul wants us to know ‘what’ to change in our life, so we ‘choose’ to change. If we refuse to change something that leads to death, we surely cannot blame the Church. If we leave the Church so that we stop hearing our choices are wrong, we can’t blame the Church.

The Church is the Body of Christ, guided by the Holy Spirit into all the truth, as promised by Christ. If the Church says a behavior leads to death, we can and should trust the Church. If the Church teaches a behavior leads to life, we should choose life over death. It’s common sense.

Of course, it isn’t as easy as hearing and choosing. Temptation and sin are strong forces the devil uses to snatch us away from God. The deeper we are entrenched in sin, the harder it is to dig our way out. The Church knows that too, so we have prayer, fasting, and confession.

Because the Church knows our struggle, just as important as what behavior we should avoid, the Church teaches us the way to repentance. Prayer, fasting and Holy Confession are tools of repentance and grace from God. If God didn’t have grace, He wouldn’t have come to save us.

But here’s the deal. If we ‘break up’ with the Church, we break away from the very Body that is given by God to save us. If we walk away from the Church, we walk away from God. So, the Church says to us, “Don’t leave. Stay! I can help you change.” That is love.

Take advantage of the Fast of the Holy Apostles this week and make the choice to stay with the Church. Make the choice to walk away from sin rather than walking away from the Church. It won’t be easy, but nothing worth anything is easy, and it leads to life over death.

For a complete study on the Book of Romans, check out our Bible Study on Romans.