OK, I admit it. I love chocolate, just about any way that it comes:
bars, drops, kisses, chips, syrup, you name it. It can be milk, white, or dark;
with raspberry or orange it's even better. It's great in a mug (with or without
coffee). If it's wrapped around some filling or fruit, or some coating is
wrapped around it, it doesn't matter. Belgian, Swiss, Hershey, Cadbury, Dove,
whatever. Just keep it coming.
I do have some favorites, though. For instance, in the candy bar
category dark chocolate Three Musketeers bars rank high on my list, and so do
Snickers bars. I have noticed, however, that it takes quite a few 3M's to
satisfy me (and then I have a roaring sugar buzz to work through). A Snickers bar,
on the other hand, "really satisfies you." With all those peanuts in
there, I'm generally good with one.
So what does all of this have to do with magnifying Christ? I'm
thinking of the Apostle Paul's words to the Philippian church (1:20) when he
declares, "so may also Christ be magnified in my body, whether by life or
by death." That word magnify is
the key. It means to make heavy, or to show worth. Paul is saying the
objective of his existence is to exalt the weight or worth of Christ to all
around him; to demonstrate by his life the reality and substance of the Savior.
Paul speaks at length of that substance in his epistle to the Colossian church
as he insists in chapter one that Christ is preeminent in all things (verses
15-29).
You see, Three Musketeers bars are tasty and sweet, no doubt. They're
also mostly air. Not much substance there at all. It takes a lot of them to
sort of fill you up, and to obtain that goal will cost you. In the end, though
they promise a satisfying experience, they can't do it because they have no
substance, no weight, no real worth. And while I readily acknowledge that
Snickers bars hardly qualify for health food status, they at least have weight,
and some protein, and they do fill you up without the buzz. They have solid content
through and through, which is the point of the analogy.
Too many believers want to focus on the "light" version of
the Lord Jesus Christ: His sweetness, His love, His kindness, His innocence as
a baby, and so on. There are lots of worship songs out there that elevate those
things exclusively, and for many this is the only Christ they know. Thinking
they are praising Him as He desires, they really are trying to fill up on a
partial understanding of Who He really is. It's no wonder that the largest number
of converts to cult religions come from evangelical Protestants who are
basically “Three Musketeer bar” Christians who don't really know the
substantial, weighty Christ. They are defenseless against the subtle deceits of
the Adversary.
Christ is
"sweet," no doubt, full of love, kindness, and tenderness. But He
also is just, holy, a righteous Judge, infinite, eternal, one with the Father,
full of grace and truth. He is first in all things, and will not tolerate being
one idol among many in our hearts. He is solid through and through, of worth
and deserving of our highest praise, our earnest seeking out of every facet of
His character, of our declaration of Him to the world in fullness (not just the
parts we're most comfortable with). To magnify Him means that we make it our
burning desire to help others to see Him as He reveals Himself in the Word.
Toward the end of his letter to the Colossian church, Paul commends his fellow
laborer, Epaphras, as one who manifests this attitude: "Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ
Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you
may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has worked hard
for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis"
(4:12, 13; compare with 1:29). Epaphras was a “Snickers bar” Christian. He
wanted others to have the same genuine satisfaction in Christ that he himself
had experienced, whatever it cost him. So may it be with us.
And now, for some
reason, I feel strangely hungry. Time to go raid the snack drawer....
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