I’m very excited because this week is the pinnacle of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations with a special four day weekend in the UK and more celebrations than you could shake a stick at!
Throughout the UK and around the world this monumental occasion is being celebrated. Here in New Zealand a friend and I are joining in with the celebrations by having a big Jubilee Lunch (there will be Union Jacks everywhere!).
Many people talk about the Royal Family and all the privilege they enjoy and the life of ease and prosperity they live, but as the Queen has so profoundly shown throughout the 70 years she has so far ruled for, the privilege is just one part of being a Royal, the less considered but equally important part of being royalty is the tremendous amount of responsibility that it entails.
The Shared Experience of Royalty and Christianity
Just as those born into the Royal Family are born into privilege as well as responsibility so it is with those who are born into God’s family.
There is much expected of someone in the Royal family, from not being able to get any privacy, being constantly gossiped about in the papers, and for the Queen – even at 96 having to go around to countless engagements and always being dignified, polite, and pleasant no matter what she actually feels like.
Just as there is joint privilege and responsibility in the royal life so there is in the Christian life – everything we have from the air we breathe to the money we spend is a good gift from God and the greatest gift of all is reconciliation with God Almighty through Jesus’ death for us!
We do not get to choose what we take and leave – we are born into the Christian family and get both the incredible blessings of that and the responsibility which comes with it. As Christians we come to learn that every good thing is from the hand of God and that we need to change how we live accordingly.
What Responsibility Means In The Christian Life
The privilege of being part of God’s family is freely gifted to us through no merit of our own. Paul states this in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
We cannot and do not do anything to warrant God’s favour or the ability to be in his family but this does not mean that we do not have responsibility to do good because of the good God has done for us. In the next verse – verse 10, Paul continues, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Since God has blessed us with everything we have on earth and every spiritual blessing we are responsible to share these blessings with others. For those in positions of authority they are to use their power to look after those they are in charge of, we are to use the money we have to bless other people, we are to use the good bible teaching we have received to share God’s word with others.
As Christians in the west we have an immense amount of Bibles and Bible resources available to us where some people can only dream of having a single bible in their language or a single bible in their village!
Enjoy the Privilege, Embrace the Responsibility
No matter the amount of privilege we think we have we have the responsibility to share it. We will be judged not according to how well we did compared to other people but how well we did compared to what we had to use.
Again, nothing we can do or not do will change our status before God as beloved children and heirs of his kingdom but that is the very reason that we should be embracing our responsibility.
In Luke chapter 12, verse 48b, Jesus is teaching about this to the crowds, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”
Like the widow who gave the two tiny coins as a donation to the temple and was praised by Jesus, we need to utilise what we have whether small and great and use it to look after others and spread God’s word.
We have all been wildly blessed by God and, as well as celebrating that and enjoying it, we need to share it and accept both the amazing blessing and the serious responsibility – which often brings us joy too!