I may have a bone to pick with Bon Jovi. He has the audacity to title a song “It’s My Life.” In modern day Christianity, this title would not pique anyone’s interests. Let me lead you down a road about why I started to doubt the validity of this song title.
I was reading the introduction to The Cost of Discipleship the other day. Most of the introduction is a biography of the author, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. If you don’t know much about this man; I’ll spare you a lot of the details and just tell you that he became a martyr for the faith for standing up for his beliefs during the second World War in Germany. That really doesn’t do his story any justice, so I really suggest studying up on him and understanding what he really contributed to the Christian faith. Anyway, something that really shocked me when I was reading his biography is that when I read that he became a martyr for the faith, the shock and awe factor in my head did not register as high as it usually does. Instead, my brain just registered this fact as normal. When this happened, I began to process why somebody dying for the faith had just registered in my brain as a normal progression of actions.
The first passage that came to my brain when I was processing martyrdom was Romans 12:1. It says, “Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. (HCSB)” I know that if you have grown up in church or merely given Christianity a look-over you have probably heard this verse quoted at least once. As I look over this verse and think through what it says, I begin to get doubts about the veracity of Mr. Jovi’s title choice. If we are truly living the way that Paul urges us to in Romans 12:1, then, in fact, it is not “My Life.”
I honestly cannot tell you how many times I have heard a form of this statement, “It is so much harder to live for Christ than to die for Christ.” Really? I am not totally sold out to this statement anymore. I guess the usual meaning that the speaker is trying to imply is that when you die as a martyr, you get a quick ticket out and get to step directly into eternity at that moment, versus living an entire life sold out to the calling that Christ has put on your life. What the speaker usually forgets to realize is what kind of actions and processes have to take place for a Christian to be put into the position of martyrdom. I do not think Stephen embraced that statement when he was living his life in the book of Acts. In order for him to get stoned, I do not think he was looking for the quick ticket to heaven. When Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed in Germany, I do not think he was challenging Adolf Hitler’s regime simply because he wanted to get to heaven before WWII ended. The examples could go on, but I think you get my point.
The point of this blog is to pose the question, “What would modern Christianity look like if we truly lived out Romans 12:1?” I am not pointing a finger at you the reader saying you need to get your stuff together, I know that I have to get the plank out of my eye first. So many times in my walk with Christ I have accepted that martyrdom may be the progression my life takes, and I am ok with that, but I haven’t really done anything to make that the progression of my life.
Now this blog could go on and get really ambiguous (as it may already have), but I’ll sum it up for you. The reality is when we decide to follow Christ we have already given our life to Him. In that moment, it is no longer our life to lose. If we are truly living the way Christ has called us to, then we are, in fact, already martyrs. Whether or not the road that Christ has you on leads to physical martyrdom is insignificant. If we all embrace “spiritual martyrdom” we will stop looking to martyrs as our heroes and we will actually begin living a life that others will look up to and want to emulate.
I’m about to do the same thing, so I encourage you to look through the passages in the BIble where Jesus called people to be His followers. Look into those passages and see what He actually said. Did He call for passive non-committal followers? NO. He called for people to be completely sold out, living a life in total disregard of the earthly norms.
Disclaimer- I am actually not mad at Bon Jovi. I think his creation and making popular of glam rock and rock ballads is quite amazing. If you’re lucky, you may see me performing a Bon Jovi song at a karaoke club someday (but don’t hold your breath).
