From abstract to concrete

So what good are spiritual ideas which are left in the abstract?

In a conversation I was having with a new friend last night, we spoke about the need to move spiritually true ideas from some nebulous places in our heads to a more concrete express in our lives.

Take salvation for example.

We are saved by grace, through faith. That idea is true, effectual and wonderful, just as it stands. But if we fail to ask, “So, what does salvation mean to my everyday life?” we are missing something. If we do not channel this idea of our salvation by grace into an expression of faith that impacts our relationships, how we work and what we do with our money,etc., the idea of salvation loses much of its intended impact.

Again, if we allow our view of God to stay “out there” and not allow it radically change our day to day lives, does it matter what we believe about God?

God is love. He is gracious and merciful. He is just and jealous. So what? These truths have to manifest themselves in a concrete fashion in order to wholly embrace them.

Look again, but this time take the idea of recycling. We can see recycling is needed. We know it is beneficial. We can give it lips service until the cows come home. But it is when we start to recycle that it takes on a new dimension of reality. We sort plastics and mental from paper. We buy products with a higher post-user percentage. We encourage others to so the same. This is an idea, an ideal lived out in practical application.

Christ followers need to take their spiritual/theological ideas and give them life that affects civil rights, social justice, creation care and the rest of the real world in the name of Jesus.