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You Are A Christian, Now Live Like One

February 27, 2006

God has been dealing with me lately on my attitude towards others and on how I have been living my life, specifically in regards to integrity and honor. Oddly enough the Bible speaks on how Christians are to live and I know we are expected to not only know but practice what the Bible teaches us. With this in mind I opened up my daily Bible verse calendar to today's date and came across Ephesian chapter 4.

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call--one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift." - Ephesian 4:1-7

Our actions are inseparably linked to who we are. Even from childhood the way we act relates to who we are and what we believe to be true. If you are a burger flipper at McDonalds then you will act differently than if you are the President of the United States. You will dress differently, talk differently, you'll have different responsibilities and you will receive different reactions and a different amount of respect from others based solely on who you are. This is a fact of life that carries over into our own Christianity. Christians are a special group of people who are called by God and Paul says in Ephesians to walk (act) in a manner worthy of your calling.

Of course he does not just say "you are a Christian, now act like it", but instead he goes into details about the Character of a person who is called by God. You must walk with humility, gentleness, patience, and love to maintain unity and peace. These are the characteristics that we should take on as Christians and fight for as humans in order that we might be like Christ in our attitudes and actions.

The church is one body and all Christians, no matter how diverse a group, are bound together by a common bond found in our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in this bond with Christ, this common ground, that we find ourselves able to come together in perfect unity, only when we take God's word to heart and allow it's words to shape our character. God made us all different and each of us has the gift of grace, but different gifts given to us to be used in his church, and in doing so we come together like a fine working machine as each does his part and lives in peace and unity with the rest of the body.

For us, harsh words, sarcastic comments, hateful thoughts, and gossip should not be a part of our daily conversation and these things should be replaced with gentleness, patience, and humility. It is in this area that God is speaking to me. In ministry it is so hard not to look at the way other Christians act without judging, looking down on them and complaining about them, but in doing so we spread the fire of gossip and hate towards the brothers we are called to love and build up. Why do we not offer the same patience, grace, mercy, and love to our brothers who offend us that God has offered to us? Christians, of all people, should understand the value of grace, mercy, and love.

God has given us all different abilities, different talents, different characters and attitudes and all are to be used to build up the body of Christ (the church) until we all are able to obtain the unity of faith of the knowledge of Jesus Christ and so that we might mature to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. To mature to the fullness of Christ should be our goal and we should strive for it everyday just as our body strives to breath.

Paul says that all of this is so that we are no longer like immature children who are tossed to and fro and carried about by "every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes." Once again I believe this ties in to what I was talking about in my post entitled If Nothing Else, It Is Consistent where I discussed the consistency of the Bible and theology. I believe that our theology should be strong, consistent, and unfailing because I believe that is characteristic of God and his Word.

"Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16

Make mercy, grace, love, patience, humility, and gentleness the way you deal with people today. People who annoy you, people who hurt you, people who you can't get along with, people who are against you, and people who love you, they all deserve to be treated with these same attributes since after all, God has given you the right to be called a child of God. You are a child of God, now live like one!

Comments

Posted by: b dubb
March 29, 2006 06:52 AM

this was just plain beautiful. i,m currently writing a paper & i needed information concerning christian behavior. this is just what i needed. God bless you for such a beautiful pesce.