Living As Christians

"Today's Devotion" For March 18, 2005

Read: I Thessalonians 1:1-10 ; James 1:17-27; 2:14-26

LIVING AS CHRISTIANS

"But someone will say, 'You have faith, and I have works.' Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works." (Js. 2:18)

There is no greater struggle for God's people today than to discover how to live as Christians in the world. While Scripture gives us all kinds of direction and insight, we are prone to missing it because of the prevailing worldview of our culture. Going all the way back in history to the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, the Western world in particular, has functioned with a dual view of existence. On one plane there is the spiritual, which Plato and the ancient Greeks declared to be good, and on the other plane there is the material world, which was declared to be intrinsically evil. Aristotelian philosophy held to a dualism that basically held that there are two truths, the truth of the supernatural world, and the truth of the natural world which contradicts the supernatural world. It was this type of thinking that led people, prior to the Reformation, to believe that laypeople couldn't attain a great level of the spiritual because only the "religious people," priests, nuns, monks, hermits, etc,. could reach the heights of the supernatural because they set themselves off from the world.

During the Reformation, the reformers pointed the people to Scripture and noted that all of life, for everyone who believes in Jesus, is spent in service to God. Dr. Luther pointed out that a baker, a merchant, a homemaker, and every other person serving others by their work or profession was carrying out their vocation as given to them by God. To live and work as a redeemed child of God is to serve Him and others according to His Will. When the Age of Enlightenment came along in Europe after the Reformation, the thinking of the people reverted to the old dualism, partly because the reformers didn't develop a vocabulary which could help people to reject such falsehood and fully appreciate to what calling they had according to God's Will. Somehow this has led to people talking about "going into the ministry" as if "ministry" is only "ministry" when it's done by pastors, teachers, or other trained "church" professionals. I recently read about one Christian businessman who felt he was a second-class Christian because he was in business.

I know this is a bit of a history and philosophy lesson, but it's amazingly applicable to our understanding of what living as Christians really means. To live as Christians is to live confidently in the forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus. To live as Christians is to use our tongues for the benefit of others, to pray for them and not to tear them down. To live as Christians is to do an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. To live as Christians is to be concerned about the welfare of others. To live as Christians is to take care of our families, to love our spouses, our children, our neighbors, our friends, our parents, and whomever else God brings into our lives. To live as Christians is to be ready to give an account of the hope that is in us at the appropriate time, as God gives the opportunity. To live as Christians is to practice good citizenship, obeying the laws of the land, fulfilling our responsibilities as citizens by voting in elections, serving on juries, seeking ways to help the poor and homeless, and offering service in any number of ways as God gives us the opportunity. In short, as Jesus' says in the Sermon on the Mount, as the redeemed children of God through faith in Christ, we are the "salt of the earth" and "the light of the world" through whom God works to touch the lives of people with His grace, mercy, and love.

Living as Christians is a remarkably fulfilling and challenging lifestyle. It's a life that lives both in the Kingdom of Heaven and in the world at the same time. To have a Christian worldview, through which we see the world as God's Creation and every human being as someone for whom Jesus died and rose again, is to live each day to the full, and to truly understand what Jesus meant when He said, "I have come that they (His sheep) may have life, and have it more abundantly" (Jn.10:10). We have been redeemed by Christ so that we might be made holy and perfect before our Father in heaven, as He intended for us to be when He created us. By His grace we daily have the opportunity to live in Him and for Him in every aspect of daily life. It's a great privilege, an awesome responsibility, a great challenge, and a source of great joy and peace to be called to such a life in Jesus Christ.

Prayer: Father, I thank You that You have called all people to Your mercy and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. I know that I too often think that I don't have ministry because I'm serving in a church or some other professional "ministry" capacity. It's a "malady" that has affected too much of Your Church on earth and too many of Your children. Help all of Your people to understand that You have called them to live for You, in You, and through You in Jesus Christ in whatever work, business, profession, or situation in life we might find ourselves. Help me to recognize Your hand at work guiding me and others to live as Christians in every circumstance of life. May my life be a witness to Your love for the world in Jesus; in Whose precious name I pray. Amen.
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--Pastor Boeck

Copyright © 2005 Rev. Richard J. Boeck, Jr. All rights reserved.