The Christianity - Assignment Example

Christianity This paper aims at demonstrating understanding of Christianity as a call for transformation of lifevia trust in God as revealed by Jesus Christ. The paper will strive to demonstrate an understanding of the path of life from which Christians are called, which entails the “works of the flesh”. This path is paved with characteristics of a life of sin, which include display of jealousy, anger, anxiety, fear, pride, guilt, quarrelsomeness, gluttony, greed, sloth, and lust. A Christian is called to another path, “Fruits of the spirit”, whose key characteristics are faith, trust, forgiveness, compassion, humility, joy, peace, generosity, kindness, hope, and gentleness. This work will consist of a negative trait and a spiritual characteristic that contrasts with the former, which will both form a basis for illustrating transformation of sinful to a holy life, and use illustrations to show how these traits manifest themselves in everyday life. Christianity, through the bible, defines anger as a sin of an attitude that is mental (Lester 85). Anger, as a sin, expresses exasperation, antagonism, resentment, indignation, and outrage. Anger is also an inducer of emotions, which are, however, not angry feelings. The pattern of thoughts, which caused the feeling to be produced, is what is referred to as sinful anger. Via the bible, Christianity defines a type of anger that is not of a sinful nature and calls it righteous indignation. This anger does not beget emotion. This goes to show that anger is a sin when emotions are involved. The Christian bible utilizes two words from Greek to denote anger: orge, which is referent to mental anger and thumos, which is referent to mental anger. It is a possibility to possess mental anger while at the same time not showing any emotional response. Ephesians 4:31 says that ogre and thumos are bitterness related (Lester 85). As a sin, anger causes man to sin against his fellow men. It breeds self-righteousness, gossip, complaining, and maligning. Righteous indignation and anger are reactions of a mental nature to circumstances or events (Lester 86). When the reaction cannot be justified, it turns to irrationality, irritation, and exasperation. Anger of a sinful nature has several characteristics. Gal 5:19-21 lumps it with impunity, immorality, idolatry, enmities, strife, among others. Therefore, it is a sin from the nature of sin. Another characteristic has to do with its relation to foolishness, as told in Eccl. 7:9, which says that anger is resident in fool’s bosoms. A fool by the bible’s definition is a person without wisdom. Anger is also associated with grieving the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 4: 30-31. Anger is further proved a sin since Col 3:8-9 says it is a violation of the code of conduct a Christian follows as a member of Christ’s body. Anger also hinders effective prayer, as well as it being accompanied by other sins. Anger, on top of this, also makes an enemy out of oneself as well as making themselves more miserable. Proverbs 22:8 contends that they who sow iniquity will reap vanity, and the rod of his fury will vanish (Lester 86). Anger also cases one to be cruel and jealous, as well as making those people that one loves, his community, and friends angry. Anger destroys a nation (Proverbs 29: 22). Anger in real life is one of the most common sins, or “work of the flesh. My schoolteacher used to be angry at the most inopportune moments. He would come into school with a long face, and we knew that when he was in charge of any activity, he would more often than not blow his top. Most teachers gave him a wide berth during the day as he would explode in bursts of wrath, which included insults and embarrassing fits of slamming his fists on the walls. When he was on duty, he used to be unpredictable, and would at times just go missing, leaving the other teacher who was sharing his responsibilities to carry on alone, which was a sin toward this teacher. Thus, it caused him to sin. He would also come to class and unleash his angry spirit on the students, especially those who seemed not to pay attention. These outbursts would include throwing pieces of chalk at the offending student. Occasionally, he would attack his own colleagues in class by starting malicious gossip abut what they were planning against him, going as far as telling his students that one of the teachers was expecting the principals child, as the two of them walked outside the class, most probably on an inspection, since she had the weeks supervisory duties. His behaviour on this issue could have been born out of jealousy, since they had romantic falling off years earlier. These were obviously works f the flesh, and he was not a popular teacher at all, with some even pitying him. Joy is the state of being happy that comes because of serving and knowing God (Lester 99). The Christian bible makes numerous relationships between the Holy Ghost and joy. The Thessalonians received the message “with joy of the Holy Spirit” (1Th 1: 6). Joy in the bible is represented by the Greek word, Chara. This translates to gladness and delight. The verb of Chara is Chairein, which is usually translated as “to rejoice. Another closely related word is Charis, which in English translates to grace. This grace gives delight, pleasure and leads to one regarding others favourably. Grace, therefore, begets joy. Failure to see and embrace what is given to Christians graciously, which makes their lives joyous, explains why most Christians have remarkably little degree of joy. Joy is believed to come because of having faith in God. It also results from obedience to the scriptures, as shown during the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch. It is also based on forgiveness, which is found via belief in Christ (Lester 99). Being aware of guilt causes unhappiness, stress, and this is shown to the world in the form of anger and outbursts of wrath. The high school teacher left the school on extended leave, after he let loose on one of his colleagues, whom he accused of colluding to have him demoted from his post as assistant gym master. He came back a year later, and we heard that he had gotten help from a local anger management class, run by a Church organization. The change in him was profound. Whereas he walked into school as if motored by indignation and exasperation, that morning he walked in slowly, with a faint smile on his face and said hello to a student with a wider smile, which was unheard of. Later in the day, he came into our class and apologised to one of our classmates, whom he had called a loser for failing three papers in a row. Since then, he has nothing, but pleasant things to say about everybody, including himself. He also reconciled with the teacher who had messed him up all those years ago. We came to learn that he had joined the local church and was a fully committed member. As he began to integrate more with the school fraternity, he realized that it had been wrong to take out his anger on the rest f the school, which culminated in a moving speech during the teacher-student day, where he gave his testimony to a moved audience, asking for forgiveness. The obvious change in him can only be explained by the transformation power of Christian life from sinful living to spiritual living. The said teacher had been a much hated and maligned figure in the school because of his anger, but when He came back, over time, He became quite a popular teacher, especially amongst the Christian community who felt triumphant in his transformation, which increased their faith. Works cited Lester, Andrew D. The angry Christian : a theology for care and counseling. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003. Print Read More