Second Mile Lifestyle

There is a widespread recognition in the world today that we ought to be living in a new way. Selfish, egotistic humanity needs to be replaced by selfless, socially-oriented persons. The attraction of [left-wing ideology], not to mention a raft of "new age" cults, can best be explained by the hope they express for a new order and a new style of human existence.

Obviously Jesus is calling people to a distinctive lifestyle, epitomized by his phrase about going the second mile (Matthew 5:41). But there is an uneasy feeling among many Christians that they have not really come to grips with this agenda, and that discipleship can be experienced at a deeper level. In order to present the biblical vision for a new humanity, and to help believers get moving in the right direction, I offer a theological framework, with three points of reference, in an effort to grasp the meaning of discipleship more adequately.

The Foundation
It is a serious misunderstanding of discipleship which presents our calling in terms of law rather than gospel. How often in a concern to promote costly obedience we come across as heavy moralists, or as legalists who drive people into guilt and despair.

In Jesus' message the call to follow him occurs within the context of his gracious proclamation concerning the goodness and gift of God who is bringing his kingdom near on behalf of all who have ears to hear. Following him was not understood to be a burdensome obligation in the contract of salvation. On the contrary, God deals with humanity through covenant, not contract, and only asks for repentance and faith. The foundation of discipleship is gospel, not law.

St. Paul makes this point abundantly clear in his teaching about the death and resurrection of Christ. The apostle viewed humankind in relation to two great representative figures, Adam and Christ. When Christ was put to death, Paul declares that we were crucified with him. When God raised Jesus up, Paul understands us to have been raised with him as well (Romans 6:3-11; Ephesians 2:4-10).

Paul does not have in mind here an experience of ours but a fact of history. From God's perspective at the end of history looking backwards, we are seen to have actually been raised with Christ in 30 A.D. In him we are no longer regarded as guilty sinners, but now participate in a "new creation" which came about through Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17).

God created a new human situation in Jesus Christ, in which we participate by faith. When God raised up Jesus, God not only vindicated him whom others had put in the wrong, but also raised up a new corporate solidarity in him so that we are all justified as well.

Our second mile lifestyle flows out of that. Because we are objectively new in Christ, we aim to walk in the light and in newness of life. Because God has been unspeakably merciful to us, we respond with gratitude to offer God our bodies as a living sacrifice. All of the imperatives of discipleship rest upon the great event of the gospel. To follow Jesus, whatever it costs, cannot be other than a joy and a privilege when we reflect on what God has done for us and to us.

The Direction
But what is distinctive about the newness of the kingdom of God? The gospels were written to answer that question. Matthew, Mark, and Luke were written to be handbooks of discipleship for the followers of Jesus, intended to acquaint us all with the one who is the model of the new direction. The Christ of faith divorced from Jesus of Nazareth is just a cult savior, open to manipulation and exploitation. The gospels were penned precisely to show us how Jesus embodied God's will so that we should know how to follow him. In Christian ethics, we are not wedded to a set of abstract principles, but are referred to one who is the exemplary model of the second mile lifestyle.

Paradoxically, the lifestyle Jesus embodied, though difficult to repeat, is simple to grasp. This is the heart of it: Jesus was wholly concerned with God, and for that reason was wholly concerned with all humanity. He took up the human cause because he understood that to be God's cause. Just because God was abba, fatherly to humankind, concerned for its salvation and benefit, it followed for Jesus that he had to be committed to humanity's benefit also.

Therefore he lived and spoke as he did, in a distinctively new manner. He befriended the outcast and disreputable, he was available to the needy, he had no concern for rank or position, all because he saw in such a lifestyle a reflection of the will and nature of God. For God's sake, he renounced his rights in order to defend ours, he went two miles instead of only one, he gave his cloak with his coat. In doing these things he was living in a human manner which was well pleasing to the Father, and he calls on us to live in this new style also.

Second mile lifestyle does not require any expertise. It is well within the reach of all of us. As an individual, it means not claiming all of our rights even when we could--not having to be first, but being willing to be last, to serve--not having to live affluently even when we can, for the sake of needy neighbors. As congregations it means not having to be large or appreciated or prosperous. It simply means being faithful to our calling to be an extension of the serving presence of Jesus in the world.

Politically it means not being deceived by the rulers of this age as to what is important and essential, but orienting our vision with reference to the ruler of the kings of the earth, to Jesus, in whose name we resist their arrogance and call them to repentance, to the service of humanity. It also means not identifying the cause of the right or of the left with the kingdom of God, but rather siding with their victims, not because they are good, but because they are victims. Jesus is our model of the second mile lifestyle, a model which has countless applications and implications. It is the will of God that we not stop with naming him Lord, but to go on seriously to treat him as such.

Let us not imagine, if this be our desire, that we will succeed in making our message likable and acceptable. Although most of the leaders of the great world religions died at a ripe old age when their work was done, Jesus was driven to death in his youthful prime. He did not win approval with his second mile lifestyle. He was provocative on all sides. A coalition of mutual enemies conspired to liquidate him, so threatening his servant presence seemed to them.

On a collision course with the styles of this world, Jesus' death was both a logical and a historical outcome or his ministry. Jesus does not promise success to us when we decide to follow him. Quite the reverse. We follow the crucified Christ, who, although raised up by God, nevertheless leads us all by way of his cross, which is the permanent signature of the Christian presence in this age.

Life in the Spirit
Thus far we have seen how there is a new solidarity in Christ, entered into by faith, which is characterized by a new direction summed up in the term servanthood. But how will we become new in this life? Knowing what the new direction is does not enable us to follow in it. Law cannot save us.

Again, the answer is plain. The ethical direction of the new order is implemented in history through the power and resources of the Spirit. There is no possible way to be an effective disciple apart from depending on the Spirit, which alone makes practically possible the second mile lifestyle. Christian existence is life in the Spirit. The Spirit causes the righteousness of the law to be fulfilled in us (Romans 8:1-4). The appearance in our lives of ethical fruit is due to its indwelling (Galatians 5:21, 22). In a. glorious text Paul declares that all of us, reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness by the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Jesus himself, the model of the new direction, actually comes to us in the Spirit and begins to work the new lifestyle out in us. [Left-wing ideology] assumes that once we know how the new humanity is to live we will begin to do so. But it is not so. In order to mirror the lifestyle of Jesus in our lives, we must cultivate a close relationship with the Spirit, and open ourselves eagerly to the gifts and ministries it desires us to operate in. We are altogether cast back upon the grace of God to live in the light.

Surely it is clear that Jesus is calling; us to a second mile lifestyle, which is not a heavy moralism, but a grateful response to the gospel; not even really a work of our own effort, but a direction effected by God in us. I hope that seeing discipleship in this theological framework will help us all to move more joyously and effectively into the new direction with Jesus.

Clark H. Pinnock was a contributing editor to Sojourners and professor of systematic theology at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario, when this article appeared.