"Measuring Up" in the Walk of Faith

Scripture references: Amos 7:7-17; Psalm 82; Colossians 1:1-14; Luke 10:25-37

When a mason is building a wall, he uses a plumb line to make sure that the structure is true. If the wall follows the plumb line, he knows that it is standing straight and is able to hold the weight that will soon rest upon it. If the wall leans to the left or to the right...if it skews away from the plumb line or runs into it, the mason must tear the wall down and start again because it will be too weak to accomplish its purpose.

In the 7th chapter of Amos, God shows His prophet the plumb line He has set up against the wall of the nation Israel. As He checks to see whether or not Israel "measures up" to the purpose for which He has called them, the failures of the nation are obvious. The Lord sounds an ominous note...since the wall cannot fulfill its purpose, it will be torn down.

One interesting thing to note about the 7th chapter of Amos is that this is the third visionary "sign" that the Lord has shown to His prophet. Each one of the signs points to the destruction of the nation. After Amos sees the two previous visions, he pleads for the well-being of the people. The Lord hears Amos' plea and withdraws His hand of destruction. This time, when the Lord shows Amos that the nation fails to measure up to the purpose for which they were created, Amos says nothing. When it is clear that the people have abandoned their purpose, there is nothing left to say.

Hopefully we all take the time to ponder how we "measure up" in the Lord's eyes. Too often, I fear, when we take the time to measure our spiritual lives we think more in terms of how we "think" or how we "feel" than we do about how we work...how we behave. Throughout the book of Amos God tells the people through His prophet that their lack of an obedient relationship with Him has led them to the point of callous attitudes and actions toward others. The injustice with which they treat the poor, the sick, the lonely (the ones Jesus called "the least of these") shows that they have lost focus on God and His purpose in their lives. The Lord's pronouncement of judgment on Israel clearly illustrates the fact that God expects us to demonstrate our love for Him in the way we treat others.

I fear that too often we fall into the trap of separating what we consider to be the "spiritual" aspect of our relationship with God (our thoughts and feelings) from the "practical" aspects of that relationship (our obedience). The message of this text is that they are inseparable. As children of God, we need to evaluate our lives daily to see how we "measure up" to God's standard. In Colossians 1 Paul expresses his gratitude for Colossians and he reminds them that he is praying that they will "live in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." In Luke 10 Jesus reminds us of the same truth, that faithful living involves not only loving God with our heart, mind and soul, but also with our strength...our actions. This means loving our neighbor to the point where we invest our lives in caring for him or her. Psalm 82 admonishes us to "Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked."

Our Christan behavior will make it possible for others to hear our Christian message because they see it in our Christian lives. As we fulfill the purpose for which God called us, we come closer to "measuring up" to our high calling.