The Christian life is a daily struggle with beauty. We are always and forever appraising, valuing, and attaching to things. The truth is that Christ is to be that ultimate treasure that gives shape, meaning, and understanding to all other things. Everything is to be subordinated through and by the glory of Christ.
But this is hard.
I have found How People Change to be a very helpful resource on this topic. Here is a sample where he is getting at the need for living in light of the truth of union with Christ:
What does it mean to be married to Christ? Christ has made us the recipients of his affection and, in turn, we are to make him the ultimate object of ours. Paul speaks to the Corinthians as a jealous father who wants nothing to supplant or compromise this relationship. He urges the Corinthians to shun false saviors and false gospels and to place their hopes and affections solely on Christ.
What false lovers entice you to forget your true husband and the faithfulness he deserves? Why do we worship other things in place of Christ? Quite simply, we worship what we find attractive. We allow many things to eclipse the beauty of Christ. We devote our hearts to our jobs, other people, a state of mind (comfort, security), success, power, peace, or money. We have many options before us, but we cannot get our identity from these things.
I am easily enticed by comfort. After a hard day at work, I am ready for some “down time.” I tell myself that I deserve it! Comfort and leisure are good things, but when my personal comfort becomes more important to me than Christ, it impacts my behavior sinfully. If I arrive home to a house full of children who get in the way of my comfort, I rapidly turn into a very harsh person. I have placed myself in arms of a false lover: my personal comfort.
–Timothy Lane & Paul David Tripp, How People Change, pp. 58-59 (Westminster | Amazon | Kindle)
