The Law of the Jungle and the Law of Christ
Galatians 6:2,5 (NKJV)
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ… For each one shall bear his own load.
From Rudyard Kipling’s timeless classic, The Jungle Book, comes this morsel of wisdom:
“Now this is the Law of the Jungle — as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break
it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and
back –
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is
the Pack.”
Pay especially close attention, if you will, to that last line: “The strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the pack.” There is so much instruction for us in that simple metaphorical statement, especially if we consider it in concert with the words of the Apostle Paul.
Allow me to break it down:
THE STRENGTH OF THE PACK IS THE WOLF.
You have heard, no doubt, that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. In any place of community – whether a home, a church, a business organization, or whatever – the strength of the whole is contingent upon the contribution of each individual. Without the wolf, there is no pack. It is the strength and dedication of the wolf that makes the pack a possibility.
The same is true in your church or home or place of business.
Paul puts it this way: “For each one shall bear his own load.”
Let one soldier in a unit fail to do his job, and the entire unit is at risk. Let one member of a team be derelict in his duties and the whole team may fail. Let one church member fail to shoulder his part of the ministry burden, and the entire congregation is put at a disadvantage. Let one family member… well, you get the picture, right?
The strength of the pack is the wolf. You do matter. It IS important whether you do your part. No individual has ever lived and died to himself alone. Your influence and potential is greater than you may realize.
THE STRENGTH OF THE WOLF IS THE PACK
As strong and beautiful as the individual wolf may be, if he is alone, he is vulnerable. He is not a great solitary hunter. His safety and his strength is in the pack
For the church, Paul taps into this truth about the “pack mentality” in Galatians 6:2 when he instructs us to help bear the burdens of others. A community of believers is at its best when it rallies to the aid of a faltering member. Whether it is seeing a widow through the loss of her husband, or a young couple through the death of a child, or a family through the stress of unemployment, or simply lifting one another up in prayer before the throne of the grace.
Way back in Genesis, God saw and asserted that it was not “good” for a man to be alone. He needs companionship. He needs community. Let us beware of too much isolation. Let us be even more acutely aware of how vitally important the church, the home, the workplace, the nation, etc. is to our lives.
The point here is that we each have individual responsibilities, but we should not be individualists. We need each other. Together, with each of us doing our part, we are as formidable and as functional as the wolf pack.
And that, my friend, is the law of Christ…and the law of the jungle.
A PRAYER FOR TODAY:
“Father, I want to take the time today to be thankful for the places of community You have afforded me. (Be specific. Give thanks for your, family, church, workplace, country, etc.) I pray that I will never
take them for granted, and that I will fulfill my individual responsibility so that I am ever a blessing and never a burden. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
Hip Shots
Blackie Sherrod, One of my favorite old-time newspaper columnists, wrote a column of random observations for the Dallas Morning News . He called it Scatter-Shooting. In the column, he would offer a collection of observations, opinions, and news items that were completely unrelated. Since imitation is the finest form of flattery, I tip my hat to the old scribe and here we go…
Congratulations are in order to the slim majority of American voters. The man you elected to put an end to the American system of government as we have known it is moving right along. While he diligently works on creating a nationalized banking system, he has happily accepted the role of chairman of the board for America’s largest auto maker. That fat arse sitting on the tax-payer’s shoulder just got fatter…and he isn’t going on a diet any time soon.
Is anyone besides me weary of the herd mentality? Whether it is reality TV, sports, or church-building, let one group have success with a formula and suddenly everyone is adopting the formula. Is it really essential to the success of your reality TV show to have at least one judge or host with a British accent? Is the Wildcat offense really that innovative, or is it just a glorified high school option play that defenses will soon stuff with regularity, and then watch while it is tossed on the heaping pile of tricked-up offenses that could never last? Is successful church-building really based on replicating the flavor-of-the-month preacher or church? And what exactly is successful church-building anyway?
I love Lucky brand jeans. I have owned three pair and each has fit and felt great. The problem is this: I cannot get my mind around paying 150 bucks or so for a pair of blue jeans. So, I shop Costco and Sam’s and Nordstrom Rack with the small hope that I will find them at a price most rational humans would consider reasonable.
It is an incredibly gratifying thing to have one of your kids demonstrate maturity and wisdom and, in effect, become your counselor.
Toilet paper should be rolled from over the top.
I was recently nominated for the Piss and Moan About Everything Club. Those nominating me were pissing and moaning about how I piss and moan.
Give Me a P! Give Me an R! Give me an I! Give me a D! Give me an E!
The Bible has a great deal to say about pride…and none of it is good. Over and over again, pride is roundly condemned. It is listed among the seven deadly sins. God goes so far as to say that when a person is filled with pride, He hates the look on that person’s face. [See Proverbs 6:16-18.]
Why then has it become vogue for Christians to tout their pride? They are proud of their church, their preacher, their kids, their jobs, their accomplishments, ad infinitum. I know that we Christians love to do ideological and theological gymnastics to defend our own faults…and even to paint them, not as faults, but as strengths. Church pride can’t be a bad thing, right? I mean, after all, the church is all about Jesus and Jesus is all about the church…so if I go around smacking everyone in the face with how my church rocks the most, that just has to be something Jesus would high five me on. Right? And community pride. I mean, come on! I am a Texan. How can I not rub that in the face of everyone who isn’t? And my grandkid? He is way cuter than yours and I have the pics to prove it.
It isn’t any wonder that many thinking people are turned off more by Christians than they are Christianity. Too often, we pretty much do what we want and interpret the Bible in a way that supports how we wanted to live in the first place. Then, we puff out our chests and look down our noses at all the poor, ignorant slobs who aren’t as enlightened as us.
We pat ourselves on the back, so proud of all we are…and all we aren’t.
Lest you think me unqualified to speak on this subject, I would draw back the curtain to my own heart and reveal that my besetting sin is – and always has been – pride. I didn’t preach to any church yesterday. I am not pastoring one today. I won’t be overseeing one tomorrow. I am where I am because of pride.
I’m not proud of that. I am proud of myself for recognizing and acknowledging it.
Um, wait…
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The JourneyMan by D. Gene Strother is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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