Scripture: 1 Corinthians 7:17 – “However that may be, let each of you lead the life that the Lord has assigned, to which God called you. This is my rule in all the churches.” (NRSVue)
I am more of a Martin Luther King, Jr., guy than a Billy Graham guy, and I am not a big fan of altar calls, but there was always something beautiful about Graham’s use of the hymn “Just as I Am” when he invited people to come forward during his “crusades.”
I looked into the history of “Just as I Am” and discovered that it was written by a woman named Charlotte Elliott. Elliott grew up in a pious household, but in her twenties came to shun religion in favor of her art and her more secular friends. However, when she was 32, she got severely ill and eventually felt the need for a personal relationship with Jesus. She wanted to be perfectly spiritual before becoming a Christian, but was told, “Come just as you are.”
However, this is not the end of the story. Elliott continued to struggle with her poor health and invalid status. Despite her writing skills, she felt completely useless, and this took a toll on her emotions. One day, she was so overcome by negative emotions that she doubted whether her faith was an illusion. But the next day she leaned on her faith in God’s grace above her feelings. This led her to write “Just as I Am.”
Even though people think that good people go to church, the opposite is true. People go to church so they might become good, and as Elliott’s example teaches us, that is not a one-and-done occurrence.
In Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, he says, “However that may be, let each of you lead the life that the Lord has assigned, to which God called you. This is my rule in all the churches.” This is in specific reference to whether a man needed to be circumcised, or otherwise an observant Jew, in order to be a Christian. Paul said that God calls us all just as we are. Whether a Corinthian is circumcised or not, or is a slave or not, does not matter. He writes, “Obeying the commandments of God is everything.”
Many churches reject people for things beyond their control. They reject people who do not fit what they think is a “holy” race, ethnicity, sexuality, or gender identity, even though God called them to follow Jesus from “the life that the Lord had assigned.” People are seen as “less than” if they do not look right or dress right, or if their body type is wrong, or if they differ mentally or emotionally from the norm, or if they are disabled, like Elliott was. People are denied fellowship if they did things in the past that are considered objectionable: being incarcerated, becoming addicted to drugs, getting a divorce, or having an abortion. But Paul teaches that this is not the way. God calls us to be who we are, but to do what we are commanded to do. These two are not in conflict as much as many so-called Christians want you to believe. Living a holy life does not mean having to change everything about yourself, but about praying to be more faithful and more loving in all you do, in trying to sin no more but to always hold God first in your thoughts.
We are not perfect people, but we do not need to be. We do not have to hate who we are to be loved by God and to love others as God does. God calls us, just as we are.
Prayer: Just as I am - poor, wretched, blind; sight, riches, healing of the mind, yea, all I need, in Thee to find – O Lamb of God, I come!
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