THE CHRISTIAN’S CHARGE

Imagine this; you are a teenager living at home with your parents. One evening as your mother hurries out the door for a meeting, she yells out instructions for dinner that went something like this: “make some spaghetti for dinner; see you later.”

An hour or so before dinner, you looked in the pantry; there was no spaghetti noodle and no sauce, you have no car, and there is no grocery store within walking distance.  Reluctantly, you go to the neighbors next door to borrow ingredients for dinner. How annoying and inconvenient! Right?

Now, let us consider God’s instruction to us, His children, which says, “You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own” (Leviticus 20:26 NIV). Fortunately, we don’t have to figure out on our own how to be holy; along with the command, He has also given us the ‘How To,’ Amen!  The apostle Peter puts it this way, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (2 Peter 1:3-4 NIV).

I believe the Christian’s charge can be placed in two major categories. They are listed below.    

·        Godly Living - How are we supposed to accomplish this? Well, God makes Himself known to us through His Son (the Word). If we search the Word carefully and diligently we will discover the ‘How,’ which is an ongoing, everyday process - of thinking and behaving like He would. After all, He wants His holiness to be our model, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children” (Ephesians 5:1 NIV).

   

·        Evangelism – “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20 NIV). He has given us the power we need, and expressed it this way, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8 NIV). The power is not only for courage and boldness in sharing our faith; it is also for living godly lives, because our way of life is a way of witnessing, and it is just as important as verbally sharing our faith. We are more effective in soul-winning when our way of life confirms what we say. Amen!