thursday reflection for week 6

Orthodoxy or orthopraxy? Which is more important? Does one include the other? Today, Wes briefly mentioned that often times in life we overlook our way of life by focusing soley on the things that we believe. For example, we make salvation a set of beliefs that people must believe rather than seeing salvation as a process, a way of life. Wes said that for Jesus' disciples, following the way of life that Jesus lived was more important than coming to terms with a belief system or a set of beliefs.

In other words, orthopraxy, the way of right living, was more important for Jesus and his disciples. Of course, Jesus taught things to his disciples and to the crowds of people, but Jesus' main message was to begin living a drastically new, different life—a life in the kingdom of God as a present reality—and when living this new life, all of the teachings will begin falling into place. By living the way in which we were meant to live, living in the kingdom of God as creations in the image of God, the teachings and the beliefs become our second nature or our new nature.

I recently read an article by Stanley Grenz about gender and family relations. In this article, Grenz states that many people mistakenly believe—thanks to the Platonic dualism that has been handed down to us through the years—that we can separate who we are from what we do. Grenz argues that who we are entails what we do. We cannot separate the two. Furthermore, judging from Wes's comments and my own in this post, Jesus would argue that who we are entails what we do, and what we do entails who we are. Either way, these two are inseparable.

Thereforefore, is it orthodoxy or orthopraxy? It is orthopraxy. Through living the right life, the life modeled by Jesus, the orthodoxy begins to fall into place. Accordingly, what we do feeds who we are and vic a versa.