I Want My Privacy

Jesus needed his privacy. He went away from the crowds and even sometimes from his closest disciples to be alone with his Father. However, when we say we want or need our privacy, what we mean is that we need to get away from the snooping of others into our private lives. We have private lives, versus public ones. Jesus had no such luxury. He had his times apart from the vexations of sinners, so he could be with his holy Father. But his life was a stripped version of what we would call a fulfilling life. We feel fulfilled when we have our wonderful houses and cars. He had no place to lay his head, even. His death was ignoble, as he was exposed in the shame of the Roman crucifixion between two thieves. Yes, the life of Jesus is exposed to the world, so is his death, and so is his resurrection.

But our lives are not so. We say that we let our light shine, but we shelter ourselves from the responsibility of the cross, pretending to be loving Christians as long as someone is looking. We seek out churches amenable to this concept, and wind up lukewarm. We have our private lives, consisting of everything from pornography to stamp collecting. Some of the things we do are not socially acceptable. Religious people are not supposed to enjoy pornography; stamp collecting is O.K. Going to Europe is wonderful; embezzling to fund it is not. Paul said that our freedom in Christ should not be limited by a list of touch not, taste not, handle not items, but he said that not all things were expedient, meaning, they are not expedient for the sake of building up the church. If we feel that our wants come before the gospel, Jesus said we are not worthy to be his disciples.

Wanting our privacy at the expense of the gospel is a sure clue that we are wrestling with the concept of following Christ. Let our privacy consist of our prayer closets. To be sure, if we have things we enjoy that the weaker brother finds sinful, then we should practice privacy in that sense only. Most people’s religion consists of a various assortment of do’s and don’ts, and we must be careful of their weak conscience. The mature Christian is not supposed to flaunt his faith in these matters, knowing that the weak brother may stumble. But if we are in our prayer closets, praying in the Holy Spirit, then let them ridicule us or falsely accuse us as we pray for them. But if our time is consumed by hobbies and honey-do’s that do not have as an end result the edification of the church, then we are in need of our privacy all right. We are switching off the Spirit so we can go on vacation from Him. We are tired of his prying into our private lives. We need to recuperate from all this religion we have been practicing in front of our fellow parishioners. We need to do something we really like. Pastors teach us this is all right by practicing these same things themselves. They take a vacation from the gospel.

This is not meant to say that we should return to legalism. Jesus knew that the legalists were hypocrites, secretly practicing the very sins against which they preached. Our righteousness has to excel that of hypocrites! What we need to do is regulate our privacy. It must come under the rule of Jesus Christ. Our privacy should not consist of putting Jesus on the shelf. It should be a time of getting closer to him. One day, we will stand before God and everything will be revealed, either to our glory or to our shame. Knowing the true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, releases us from the condemnation that would certainly be ours otherwise. By seeking him and his kingdom, we will not be ashamed at his coming, but all the more rejoicing as we see the Day approaching. We should have great liberty in thus believing. But do not let us twist the meaning of this liberty into thinking it has something to do with opportunity for the fleshly pursuits of this life. The liberty we have in Christ allows to lead open lives before the world and before the church.

Hopefully, this little sermon will cause us to examine our private lives and see if we can, by faith, turn some of this over to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. May we quit pretending on Sundays and find our help throughout the week. May the grace of our God and Father be with you.

- Chris Simonson

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