THREE QUESTIONS

The decisions we make are usually our preference of several options. We weigh the options and choose which tradeoff will be the most beneficial to us. We do this pretty much automatically and unconsciously weighing three ever-present questions: 

How will this benefit me?

What will this cost me?  

How will this make me feel? 

These questions dominate our decisions. It would seem foolish not to weigh decisions by them. How else would we decide favorably about anything that affects us? They are so intuitive (known automatically and instinctively) that we are hardly aware of their influence. So, they can have unquestioned and unrestrained authority over our decisions.

God’s Truth is counter-intuitive to our thinking, which is why it has to be revealed to us in scripture, and received in humility, for us to see it. And His revelation surprises us in that our way that seems so right, intelligent, and logical is so often biased by our self preoccupation. And, conversely, the way that feels wrong is right because it does not gratifyingly answer our three me-centered questions.

The first sin of the human race was to desire to “be like God,” to decide for ourselves what is good and evil; to make ME the center of the world, rather than God, or anybody else. War and ill feelings come from the self-centeredness of two or more people asking these questions only for themselves, each insisting that it is all about them and NOT the other person.

All kinds of evils spring from this. Judging is one of them. We pass judgment on those who ask the three self centered questions for themselves. We resent them asking them because, from our perspective, they are “wrong” about who the world should revolve around (them, instead of ME!). We see them as self centered, selfish, and stubborn, forgetting that “you who judge practice the same things”. Romans 2:1

Did our Lord Jesus Christ ask these three universal human questions in his perfect humanness, searching for the cheapest option most comfortable and beneficial to Him? No, we find Him saying, “…I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” John 5:30 “I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks and judges.” John 8:50

Our Lord’s questions were counter-intuitively different than ours. He, too, had many options to consider. But He always made His decisions

toward keeping the Father rather than Himself, in his humanity, in the center of His world. He asked these questions: 

How will this benefit The Father?

What will this cost The Father? 

How will this make The Father feel?

Then he sacrificially obeyed the option most beneficial to His Father, when it cost Him dearly, made him suffer greatly. He did the very thing we recoil from, that we rebuke in those we love when they make a costly self-denying decision. We would have rebuked the Lord Himself, as Peter did! “That’s not smart!! No! You could die! Think of yourself!” Notice where this logical advice came from:

".... Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.’ But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's.’

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.’” Matt. 16:21-17 

He is our example. His example is our imperative. There is no other way that His true disciple can live. Our three careless questions spring from our lower nature, and motivating them is Satan, who never suggests the self sacrificing option of a cross for ourselves, or our commitment to discipleship!

To go the way of the natural mind, weighing our choices by the automatic self-promoting, self-protecting questions is to deny Christ’s Lordship just as the world does! His command to love sacrificially as He does is meaningless and a mockery in our lives when our first question is “What about ME…my benefit, my cost, my feelings?”. Scripture is entirely unambiguous about this:

“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. But immorality (How will this make me feel?) or any impurity (How will this benefit me?) or greed (What will this cost me?) must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints…

“For this you know with certainty, that no immoral (…ME feel?) or impure (…benefit ME?) person or covetous (…cost ME?) man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them; for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light (having counter-intuitive revelation) in the Lord; walk as children of Light…trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord (not yourself).” Eph. 5:1-11

“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts (what will benefit ME, …cost ME, …make ME feel).” Romans 13:14    

Either God is Sovereign, or man is sovereign. It’s all about Him or it is all about me. A little bit about Him is still all about me. Either He reigns over my decisions all the time, or I do. We can test our thinking and decisions by the three questions of the flesh, and the three questions of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. The former is “selfishly ambitions” and “obeys unrighteousness” (Rom. 2:8); the later is ambitious to confirm that God is Sovereign, not man, and rules in my affairs.     

Rae Edlin