Conduct
“Only
conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ…”
Philippians
1:27
“Or
do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do
not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,
nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers,
nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you
were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” 1 Cor. 6:9-11
“I’m
not perfect,” should be the new Christian moto.
Many Christians today use that excuse so that they can keep doing the sins
they know they should not be doing.
There are many preachers out there teaching a type of faith that allows
you to keep doing the things the scriptures teach that God hates. Yet, the Bible makes it clear that we are to
“Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel.” Phil. 1:27. When we
don’t conduct ourselves in a worthy manner we do damage to our testimony. Many have turned away from the faith because
of the actions of other Christians who don’t even try to live a worthy
life. We need to look at walking in a
worthy manner.
In
Corinthians we have a list of things that God hates. The list has what we call
the “big sins” in it like the sexual sins, yet it has some of what we call
“normal sins” like coveting, and drunkenness.
Sin is something we are all guilty of, as Romans chapter 3 tells us but some
claim these sins as believers are ok because the blood of Christ has forgiven
us. Some are so bold as to say all I must do is ask for forgiveness and I am
ok. Let me boldly ask you if you love
Christ does doing what He hates show how much we love Christ? To be called a Christian is to be like Christ
are we like Him? We have a battle that
we all must face and that is a battle of the flesh.
People
today live in a more connected world, and when they see us doing things that
they know aren’t right and we say its ok I’m saved because I’m a Christian,
then why would they want to come to faith?
If faith isn’t any different than the world then what good is faith? Some sins are hard to get out of ones’ life
and when we make no effort to depend on Christ and fight the battle, then the
message we send says I am no different than you. We say Christians are to be in the world but
not of the world, then show that by your actions and the choices you make.
The
last part of 1Cor. 6:9-11 says “Such were some of you...” It’s important for us to remember that we
were all sinners and were at one-time part of the world. But Jesus washed us sanctified us, justified us,
and so does our conduct demonstrate that?
We need to stop making the excuse of not being prefect and start
striving to live our lives for Jesus. He
knows we aren’t perfect, but He has given us all that we need through His word
and His Spirit to live a worthy life.
When we spread the gospel, people will judge how we live our lives as
well as what we say when making a choice as to whether to trust in Christ or
not. Take time to examine your own life
and ask what sin are you holding on too that you need to confess and repent
of.
All Scripture is from The New American Standard Bible, copy write 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA
Photo by Tegan Mierle on Unsplash
Photo by Tegan Mierle on Unsplash
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