Direction Signals

for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God  Hebrew 11:10

Looking For – You could say that Abraham was a man without direction.  He spent most of his life following a God toward a place he never arrived.  He demonstrated his faith by obedience in spite of his lack of a map because he learned to operate according to today’s immediate instructions.  But he never stopped looking.  That’s the point of this passage.  Abraham never arrived at the city built by God, but he was always on his way there.

The Greek word here is oregomai, a verb that means “to reach for,” or “to strive for.”  It is used only four times in the New Testament, but it is not used in the way that Classical Greek thinking uses this word.  For the Greeks, oregomai was the key attitude that propelled a man toward enlightenment through reason (striving for the Good, the True and the Beautiful) or took a man toward corruption through the passions (desires).  For the Greeks, if a man devoted himself to the primacy of reason, he would progress up the scale of Logos toward divinity.  This is the same philosophical approach that we find in New Age thinking.  It’s very, very old.  On the other hand, a man who let his passions control his striving would slip into debasing actions like lust, greed and avarice.  For the Greeks, striving could go either way.  The critical factor is the priority given to rational control.  A lot of our thinking about moral training finds its home in this idea.  Our culture advocates Greek-based decision-making when it promotes a “rational” ethics.

The author of Hebrews has a very different point of view.  Striving is a function of faith, not rational primacy.  We learn two very important lessons here.  First, we learn that faith is not emotional excitement or passion.  I don’t build up my faith by singing more stanzas of “How Great Is Our God.”  I may be passionate about the music, the words or the atmosphere, but that is not faith.  Faith is striving for something not yet a present reality.  In other words, faith is work.  It might be enjoyable (or not) but it is not emotional highs (or lows). 

Secondly, we learn that faith is a life-direction in obedience.  In other words, faith characterizes my entire orientation in life.  It isn’t just a part of my human experience.  It is the complete expression of my whole life.  Faith is how I see things in the world, not just how I relate to my religion.  I cannot have faith in church and act unfaithfully in the world.  Faith is the summary of my whole life’s direction, even if I have not yet arrived at the city built by God.  As Eugene Peterson said, it is “a long obedience in the same direction.” 

Now we see why Abraham is the example.  Faith characterized his entire life orientation.  He was always on the way to the city of God, even when he stumbled.  His faith did not depend on his feelings.  It depended only on his obedience.  He demonstrated his life orientation over and over and that is why he is our example.  Even though he never arrived at God’s city, he knew where he was going and he acted accordingly.

Please don’t imagine that this implies any form of legalism (work to gain merit) or earned salvation.  We are talking about demonstrating our faith, not about God’s demonstration of faithfulness toward us.  Grace is the result of God’s faithfulness.  Our faith is the response to His grace and the way that we show our faith is through striving for the city He builds.  We work, act, think, walk, speak and live with His Kingdom in mind.  That is faith for even though we have not yet seen it, we know it is real and we live “in” it without having its full reality visible.

So, that just leaves us with one question for today:  Is your life direction in pursuit of the Kingdom?

Topical Index:  faith, oregomai, striving, obedience, city of God, Hebrews 11:10