Paradox -- a seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true
Para -- beyond
Dox -- (dokein -- to think, opinion) (doxa -- glory)
There are many paradoxes within Christianity. Listen to how one contemporary Christian song summarized a few:
The Rose of Sharon wore a crown of thorns that day
The Carpenter had a nail right through His hand
The Master of the earth, became a Servant of no worth
In fact Christianity is a paradox, a supernatural revelation of a miracle-working God calling us to a higher life than is socially normal. Paradox is truth beyond NORMAL -- A Right-side-up truth in an upside down society.
"What if we spend our lives thinking about ourselves,
When we should have been thinking about each other
What if we’ve fallen to the bottom of a well
Thinking we’re standing on top of the mountain
Thinking we’re heaven bound"
Is your life upside down? Are you marching to the drum beat of the blind masses?
Matthew 15:14 "they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
Proverbs 14:12 "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."
Your SEEMER is broke!
So the right way is not always seem right. Logically, faith flies in the face of what we know through our senses.
2 Corinthians 5:7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight:"
Let’s look at some of the upside down priciples of the Word of God this morning.
WE FIND BY LOSING
"He that finds his life shall lose it, and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it." (Matthew 10:39)
WE RECEIVE BY GIVING
"Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back." (Luke 6:38)
WE ARE EXALTED BY BEING HUMBLE
"Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." (Matthew 23:12)
WE BECOME GREAT BY BECOMING SMALL
"Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:4)
OUR WEAKNESS IS OUR STRENGTH
"And he said unto me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong."
(2 Corinthians 12:9,10).
WE RULE BY SERVING
"You know that those who are supposed to rule over the nations lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all." (Mark 10:42-45)
WE LIVE BY DYING
"I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
"What shall we then say to these things?" If the Christian life is a paradox, then the actions of individual Christians should make non-Christians wonder. The very fact that Christians do the opposite to what non-Christians would do in the same situation should challenge their whole approach to life!
