A Useful Signpost

I answer her phone calls the same way that I answer all incoming calls. It is the way that my employer has told me to respond, “Good afternoon, The Mufflerman. Kevin speaking how may I help you?” That part must be fine. I suppose it is the conversation which follows which angers Bob so much.

“May I speak with Bob please?”

Betty is Bob’s wife and she often calls into work to speak with him. I respond by saying, “Sure.” That might be where I go wrong. I am not in the habit of making polite or flirtatious conversation with other men’s wives. I just tell her, “Sure. I’ll get him for you.” I then place her on hold and grab Bob’s attention. I’m not paid to take personal phone calls in the first place. In fact, our company, and most work places discourage personal phone calls on company time. In other words, I’m really not going to spend time making idle chit chat.

I shouldn’t be trying to defend myself to you should I? To be honest, I just never knew. I never knew that Betty felt that I was being rude to her and I didn’t know that Bob wanted to punch me in the face for the way that I spoke to his wife until a co-worker of mine informed me. Bob never told me how he wanted me to answer his wife’s requests. Perhaps if I had have known how offensive I was, I might have spoken differently. Now that I do know, I do try to put a little more enthusiasm in my voice.

How do you know if your actions are offensive to someone else unless they tell you? You don’t know for sure, which just happens to be one of the beautiful benefits of having been given the law.

“...It was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.” Romans 7:7

There is a God in Heaven and He has been kind enough to tell us what He wants and what He does not want us to do. Could you imagine having absolutely no idea of what pleases and what angers him? If I didn’t have a co-worker inform me of how I offended Bob, how would I have known? And would it be fair for Bob to allow it to fester until it angered him to the point what he punched me out?

Fortunately for us, God is kind enough and man enough to let us know what makes Him angry BEFORE He gets angry. He has given us His law for that purpose. Which in turn reveals to us our need for Jesus.

24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Galatians 3:24

If you don’t know Jesus, I encourage you to read through Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy in the Bible. It’s a pretty tough read. If you do, and if you are honest with yourself, you will find that in a short amount of time that you have done the things that anger Him. At first read, you might be tempted to try and fall in line and just do what He says to do. If you begin to try that, you will also find that it is impossible to be completely obedient to His written law.

Since it is unable to purify us and unable to save us, if we really believe that there is a God who made these laws and that we are unable to jump over the bar, it reveals to us our need for a saviour – Someone who was spotless, without blemish, who was the only sufficient offering capable of cleansing us in the way symbolized in the Levitical sacrifices.

If we do not view, or ever have viewed our sin as being repulsive, I question whether we have really come to Christ. Perhaps it isn’t a universal Christian experience, but when I was brought to Christ, I came to recognize the cross for what it was. It used to be foolishness, but I realized that it should have been me. I was the transgressor; the one who broke the law, but He paid the price for my crimes. (And there were many)

Some of you might live life believing that your feces does not smell and I understand that. I’ve been there. Our smell doesn’t usually offend us. How could it offend us? We’ve been living in our filth our whole lives. We’ve become quite accustomed to the stench of it.

If you have come to Christ, I wouldn’t memorize the Old Testament laws, but I’d take a look at them from time to time. As holy as I’m sure you have become, I am just as certain that they continue to reveal the fact that we are still in need of a saviour.