The New Testament often likens the Christian life to a race. God calls us to work out what He has worked in us (Phil. 2:12-13), and we are to run to win. What does it take to live all-out for the glory of God and avoid becoming "disqualified"?
"Becoming all things to all people" has been used as a justification for all sorts of ungodly behavior in the name of winning others to Christ. But is that really what the Apostle Paul meant when he said, "I have become all things to all people" (1 Cor. 9:22)? When we look at this statement in its context, we find something radically different: that becoming all things to all people actually means that a Christian must be willing to become a slave to all in order to win people to the Lord. You may indeed be free in Christ, but what freedoms are you willing to give up in order to gain more for the kingdom?
The power of example, coupled with the faithful teaching of God's Word, is key to spiritual growth because character is more caught than taught. What does it look like to love others in our choices about gray matters? The Apostle Paul answers that question by sharing a personal example of giving up his rights in order to win others to Christ.
Christians face many challenges in the present day, whether it be the pressure from a post-Christian culture or the allurement of entertainment. Our self-serving reaction is to retreat from the fray or indulge the flesh. But God calls us to stop living for ourselves and to spend our lives for His glory. This means that we have a responsibility to reach the unbelieving world around us for Him. When we endeavor to walk in wisdom toward the world, we will be mindful of our testimonies, intentional with our time, and skillful with our tongues.
If you could sum up the Christian life, what would it look like? The Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, answers that question with a closing summary of his letter to Titus: believers are to be devoted to good works, God's word, and God's people.
These three words ring sweetly in the ears of those who have experienced this indescribable gift. But how are we saved? And what motivated God to save us? Meditating on the answers to these questions will make all the difference in how we work out what God has called us to do in response to His amazing grace.
Christians are often prone to see the unbelieving world as an oppressive adversary rather than a mission field. But when we remember that God saved us, not by any goodness of our own, but by His sovereign grace, we are motivated to be what He has called us to be in relation to them as we seek to win them to Christ.
Christians are to be different from the world, and yet engaged with the world, or as it is often said, to be in the world but not of it. We must move out of our "holy huddle" and to proclaim Christ not only with our words but with our attitudes and actions.
God's grace transforms us into the likeness of Christ, and we are to work that transformation out in practical ways not only in the community of the church, but in the larger community of the world around us. Despite the authorities over us or the way we may be treated, we are to apply ourselves to showing all people the character of our Great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
If slaves are commanded to have the proper attitude, action, and aim concerning their work, how much more do employees? While the workplace can be a challenging environment, simple obedience to God's divine directives for workers makes the gospel attractive to a lost world.
Many who have reached the latter stage of life feel entitled to spiritual retirement, thinking that along with retirement from their occupation, their work for the Lord is done as well. Others feel the sting of a culture that increasingly prefers to discard the elderly, as if they have timed out in their usefulness. But God says older Christian men and women are treasure troves of truth and wisdom who are not only to continue their pursuit of godliness, but to intentionally invest themselves in the young.
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In the midst of a culture that is in rapid moral decline, Christians are tempted to embrace false ideologies under the guise of gospel terminology or to follow those who seek to rally believers in the pursuit of saving the culture through social and political activism. But the Apostle Paul, who served in a culture that was just as godless-even worse-instead called Christians to be zealous in helping one another to grow in Christlikeness in whatever stage or station of life they found themselves, and through this to shine the life-transforming light of the gospel into a dark and lost world.
The irrefutable demonstration of a debt forgiven is love. Jesus understood the power of the testimony of a changed life and didn't hesitate to challenge his critics on this one point: if you're not serving Him, you haven't been forgiven.
