live, and to refuse to accept the methods of action proposed by the
world,...(even) the church’s ‘calls to action’ made in miserable
imitation of the world.
Men should be alive, instead of being obsessed with action. To
be alive means the total situation of man as he is confronted by
God...living to the glory of the Creator.” 9Ponder the succinct statement that Ellul makes: “A man
who spends all his time in action, by that very fact ceases to
live.” That is worthy of repeated contemplation. When
Christians spend all their time in activistic problem-solving,
they cease to live abundantly (cf. John 10:10) as Christ
intends. The objective of Christianity is to allow for the
ontological Being of the Life of God in Christ to be
expressed in the character of our behavior unto the glory of
God, rather than to engage in humanly conceived and
executed utilitarian actions and religious endeavors.
What, then, is the active responsibility of the Christian
individual? We actively make the choice of faith to be
receptive and available to all that God wants to be and do in
us by the grace-dynamic of the Person and work of Jesus
Christ. In obedience we “listen under” the guidance and
direction of God’s Spirit to discern His course of action;
how He desires to enact His Being in our behavior. “He
who began a good work in you, will perfect it until the day
of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6). Herein is the freedom from the