A Passion For Position By Afrika Mhlophe预览

A Gate Is an Entry Point

What gate did you yourself use in order to come into Christian leadership? Did you use the gate of self-denial and obedience or the gate of self-indulgence? Did you come with the idea of gaining or giving? Jesus warns, “If you don’t go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don’t deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me” (Matt. 10:37–38, MSG).

The “narrow” and “wide” gates represent a moral dualism where everything bad is on one side and everything good on the other. Between these two sides there is no midpoint. In Romans 6:19 (NLT), Paul writes, “You let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.” In this verse, Paul shows the “then and now” position of a believer.

Paul reminds us that in the past we willingly used to offer our bodies to ever-increasing levels of immorality, but now we should offer them to a new master. This new master is righteousness, which is a state and condition that is synonymous with the nature and character of God (see Psalm 119:137). The invitation to righteousness is therefore an invitation to participate in the very nature of God. Here is what 2 Peter 1:4 (CSB) says: “By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.”

Remember that leadership flows from a person and not a position—therefore a person with a divine nature will always act in line with that nature. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true.