One of the great joys we have as Christians is that God has taken care of everything to make us right with Him. Jesus and the cross has paid the full price for our sins, and we now live every moment of every day with the assurance of our inheritance.
And yet, we find quite a few exhortations throughout the Bible telling us about our manner of life, or how we are to live, or instructions on how we are to relate to one another. Now, it seems that many people focus on these different things to figure out how well they are doing in their walk with God, or in how faithful they are being. But I want to suggest that we read sections such as this in another light.
Quite often, when we read God's instructions on how we are to act and behave, we will often find Him referring to our interactions with others. And that really does seem to be instructive as to the reason why we live according to God's instructions. It's not to prove that we are faithful, or to be obedient, so much as it is to be aware of how other people are seeing us as God's people. In other words, we follow the things that God says about how we live our lives because we are missionaries at all times.
That's a lot to think about. When you are at work, you are a missionary. When you go shopping, you are a missionary. When you are driving, you are a missionary. When you go for a walk, or interact with others in any community setting, you are a missionary. And while you may not speak words to them, the manner of how you live also has a great deal of impact.
Another way to think about it is this: if we fail to take these instructions of God seriously, it is very likely that people will be turned away from God, not because they find His message offensive, but because they find us offensive. We can do nothing about the stumbling block of God's message (which Jesus Himself said would be offensive to many). But we can remove the stumbling blocks that we put in the way. That's behind the exhortations to consider how we live.
And yet, we find quite a few exhortations throughout the Bible telling us about our manner of life, or how we are to live, or instructions on how we are to relate to one another. Now, it seems that many people focus on these different things to figure out how well they are doing in their walk with God, or in how faithful they are being. But I want to suggest that we read sections such as this in another light.
Quite often, when we read God's instructions on how we are to act and behave, we will often find Him referring to our interactions with others. And that really does seem to be instructive as to the reason why we live according to God's instructions. It's not to prove that we are faithful, or to be obedient, so much as it is to be aware of how other people are seeing us as God's people. In other words, we follow the things that God says about how we live our lives because we are missionaries at all times.
That's a lot to think about. When you are at work, you are a missionary. When you go shopping, you are a missionary. When you are driving, you are a missionary. When you go for a walk, or interact with others in any community setting, you are a missionary. And while you may not speak words to them, the manner of how you live also has a great deal of impact.
Another way to think about it is this: if we fail to take these instructions of God seriously, it is very likely that people will be turned away from God, not because they find His message offensive, but because they find us offensive. We can do nothing about the stumbling block of God's message (which Jesus Himself said would be offensive to many). But we can remove the stumbling blocks that we put in the way. That's behind the exhortations to consider how we live.
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