CHRISTIAN LIVING

The Christian life is a transformed life; we have been moved from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. We cannot live this life without help—without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit who lives within us.

Christians are adopted children of God. Prior to adoption, we were controlled by the devil.  Each one of us had an earthly nature of sin, evidenced by sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from the lips (see Colossians 3:6,8). Through the finished work of Christ, God rescued us from the devil’s camp. This made us children of the Most High God. He put His Spirit into us to bear witness with our spirit that we really are His children and to teach us how to live godly lives.

As Christians we are called to walk as Jesus walked. That means we turn our backs on sin, give up our former ways of living, and focus on God’s ways. The Bible says that our lives are hid with Christ (see Colossians 3:3) just as we might hide treasures from thieves. It is obvious that, if our lives are hid with Christ, we’ll treasure His ways more than worldly ways.

There are Christians who think believing in Jesus is all they need to do. They think that after they profess their faith, they are free to live any way that pleases them. In truth, believing in Jesus is only the beginning of the journey. Until we see Jesus face to face, we must continually seek to become more and more like Him. The apostle Paul expresses it this way, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12 NIV), and John says it this way, “We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin” (1 John 5:18 NIV). We need to make a conscious effort to hate sin and to have nothing to do with it.

It is clear from the Scriptures that God’s wrath is coming against those who live in sin (see Colossians 3:6). Let us, therefore, keep ourselves clean. Our salvation cost Him a price we cannot imagine. The least we can do is live to please and honor Him, so let’s obey the Scriptures, working out our salvation with genuine fear and trembling!