CP #11 Intricacies: Decision Making Items

Here are some intricacies of Christianity, to get us started delving into how the Kingdom of God is structured.

1.  decision making: to decide what to do a Christian should weigh the advantages of acting a certain way so as to provide the most good to the community (i.e., the Kingdom of God).

A commonplace example.  I needed to buy a meat item for a church picnic.  I weighed two alternatives:  I could purchase a pound of cooked bar-b-cue beef or I could purchase a party-tray of chicken filet pieces.  Now, if I purchased the beef I would be satisfying myself, since the item is something I really like, but it's rather messy to eat, especially with one's fingers.  The chicken filet tray is an item that's really not well-known in the area, since the company has only opened its store recently; but I know the item would take-off in sales in the community once people knew about the store just opening.  I would also be taking into consideration how more difficult it would be for kids, etc. at the picnic to handle the bar-b-cue beef than it would be the filet of chicken without getting the meat sauce on their clothes.

So, I reasoned, I would be helping the community more by bringing an item to the picnic that would open up new options in chicken selection than by bringing the beef item that, though tasty, is tried and true; and messy.

Moral:  the idea is to choose the course of action, in this case bringing a meat item to the picnic, that you think will be more beneficial to the community, who are eat it.

Just as Jesus to do God's will rather than his own, so we should do that which bears greater claim to enriching the social good rather than satisfying the more our taste buds!  Perhaps, the example is a bit corny but you get the idea!

2.  Having the will to follow through on doing the thing you believe has greater value to the community: In the example above, I could have gone up to the store (by the way, it's Chick-Fil-A) and, yielding to my stronger inclination, turned around and headed for the store that sells the bar-b-cue beef (which is, Famous Dave's).  Here, the Christian calls upon the power of God through the Holy Spirit, e.g., through prayer or by contact with God as by means of the Eucharist, to give him the courage to act in accord with what he has decided is the right thing for him to do, given his dedication to promote the Kingdom of God by what he does.

So, though a Christian may act in accord with inclination, he is motivated to act because of his concern to do the right thing, i.e., the act that benefits the Kingdom the more.

Comment:
Sometimes, St. Paul gives the impression of leaving it to an individual's strong self-will to resist evil and temptation:  as when he argues that the Christian should put on the whole armor of God so as to fight off the effects of the Devil. (See Ephesians chapter 6.)  Yet at other times, he exhorts one to turn to God and through communion with the Holy Spirit obtain courage and strength to do the right thing (as in Galatians 3:3; Tillich's The Courage to Be).

3. Yielding to the community's judgment of what is the right thing for a Christian to do in a particular situation.  Particularly in Mathew but also in Paul's writings, knowledge of what is the right thing for a person to do is not ultimately one's own individual's judgment but is entrusted to the enlightenment of members of the community.  I speak here of the role of the mediators in God's Kingdom, who are to settle disputes among members and maintain stability and order.

Indeed, one can view the entire Four Gospels as a defense for rightness of Jesus in going to the Cross for the sake of an unsaved and hell-bent world.  Wholly magnanimous, Jesus acted for us all, not out of inclination, but out of duty to His Father.