Imitating Christ
Your Christ like attitude towards the world may be the only source of influence on the world that encourages the ungodly to try to be godly. For all intensive purposes, you are the very person God has chosen to indwell, you are his holy one, a saint, whom by his indwelling presence and title given to you signifies that you are holy to God. You also represent God in a world that has chosen to live without acknowledging or serving him. God wants your disposition, your attitude or the manner of handling your life to reveal his greatness to the world. Imitating Christ is a visual aid that not only identifies you with God, but reveals God to the world.
Godliness and holiness go hand in hand because God is a holy God. God demands that you and I strive to be Holy because he is holy. Just as Jesus Christ led a sinless life we must strive to lead a holy life. We also learn that God can not be tempted nor will he tempt others to sin. However, sin is an ever present evil that we as humans face on a daily basis, but God wants you to train yourself to avoid sin and live a sinless life like Jesus Christ did.
Peter is calling for you to add the quality of godliness to the man created in Christ Jesus. In essence Peter is saying that you need to train yourself to be godly. Those who God has declared as holy should make every effort to live a godly life of holiness. This life of holy living tells the world that there is something different about you. A holy life lived among the unholy is a life where you associate with those in the world yet do not participate in its debauchery. Instead you let the world know that you are reverent of God and desire that they would seek the truth about God.
Holiness is a difficult task to achieve when you allow the old man control of your thought life and pursue sin for purely selfish reasons. The very things you do not want to do are the things the old man will urge you to do. Because of this, there is a constant battle going on for control of your mind. Those who live by the spirit will please God and those minds, which are set on the things of the world, are hostile to God. The natural desire to rebel against God and the desire to allow the spirit control your mind is in direct opposition.
Holiness therefore depends on who and what controls your mind. When the world has control, you love and pursue the things of the world, thus having a desire for the things that God hates. When your mind is set on the things of God desires, you will give attention to the things that please God. When you allow the Spirit of God the freedom to work in you, you give him control over your cravings to sin.
If the Spirit of God does not live in you, you do not belong to Christ. You must consider yourself as dead to sin because godliness promotes life to the fullness. However, the life you live will continue to exist because your life belongs to Jesus Christ. When you were born again, Christ came into your heart to restore your body into the temple of the living God. Once you were born again, everything became new, you became a new creature with senses suited to the spirit realm. Jesus Christ is in you doing a new work to rebuild your body into a temple for God to live. Since your life belongs to Christ your life should glorify him.
Jesus Christ is the cornerstone between the human nature and the Living God. In him you and I are being strengthened by the power of God to live according to the spirit. Just as Jesus Christ overcame the world, living by the spirit is the only way you can overcome the evil of this world. Bind yourself to the cornerstone, which is Jesus Christ so you may know the love of God, and be filled to the fullness of God. Then, will you be able to live a life of godliness and overcome the fiery darts of the evil one.
Holiness is a disposition you need to develop by dedicating your life to serve your father in heaven with a morally pure life. Life is precious but sin disrupts in every facet of life. Therefore it is to our benefit to adopt the means to live in a sin free life such as our father in heaven wants you to adopt. To God, life is precious and anything that hinders or destroys life is sin. Life is sacred to God, so God has dedicated himself to the purpose of promoting life in abundance. Therefore, life demands your respect and doing anything to harm another person should be avoided.
Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy is a command of your God to guard the life God respects and considers sacred. God has an abundance of life to give and sin has a horrible record of corrupting the life given to Adam and Eve. Once Adam and Eve sinned they were separated from God, their spirit died, but their flesh continued to live.
He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever. Genesis 3:22.
Adam’s sin had run its course, sin’s desire had conceived, gave birth to sin and after becoming full- grown, Adam and Eve died. Adam and Eve was immediately driven out of the Garden and away from the tree of life. However, before they died, God instituted a plan to restore Adam and Eve to life again. While God was passing sentence for Adam and Eve’s sin he said this to the serpent,
God announced the coming messiah who would save the world and reconcile man to God by atoning for the sins of the world. Satan had his chance to destroy the prince of peace, but God took advantage of the situation fatally wounding Satan plan. Three days after Calvary, Satan’s plan to dominate and rule the world was completely destroyed. The following passage may describe the outcome of that battle?
Peter urges the saints to become a partaker in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. Through our knowledge of God, he has given us a way through his promises to live a life of godliness. When you participate with the divine nature by taking advantage of God’s promises, the sin caused by evil desires become easier to control. God’s promises give you an avenue of escape and the help you to avoid sin altogether.
Consecration is the act of setting something apart as instruments of worship and of sanctifying things for God's use. In the Old Testament everything in the temple was consecrated for the sacred use for the worship of God. In addition, the sprinkling of blood consecrated the instruments used to worship God. Under the new covenant Christians believe that the blood of Christ has been sprinkled over your body and his blood has washed our sins away. The sprinkled blood on our lives sets us apart for the worship of God and sanctifies our life.
The blood of Christ has set you apart for God’s use. Our outlook on life is opened to a different perspective from this point on and we must develop a new imperative to live a holy life. The gift of life is so precious that we have to be determined to work out our salvation with God.
You are God’s children and God has commanded you to be holy. Your behavior towards others must be according to a strict moral conduct that your father has taught you. When God commands you to be holy he is commanding you to live in such a manner that you harm no one. The above verse summarizes God’s holiness. His other commands are consistent with God’s ideas of holiness.
God has taught his children to do unto others as you would have them do to you regardless of their affiliation with God.
One of the most important things God is attempting to teach man to do is to govern his life, to teach man to make better decisions. Anger robs man of the ability to rule with reason because anger is governed by pain of selfishness and it allows man to rule in a avenging fashion. Anger allows you to make other people feel the pain you have in greater measure. In addition, your anger always end with regrets that will last a lifetime with never enough time to repair the damage.
Living a Godly life has merits that only hindsight and reflection can reveal. A holy person is concerned about how his actions affect the lives of others, but a godly life leaves things in better shape than received. A holy life also means that you don’t have to ask the following question.
God was asking what have I done wrong and why have you turned your back on me? God was not confused about why his people had ignored his commands. God’s case was that he had delivered them out of their suffering and had given them a life of peace. His purpose was to show ways to act justly and to demonstrate compassion to those in need.
Living a righteous life before your father life means you have to live by what is right in God’s eye. Understanding good and evil and the consequences of your actions ultimately forces you to agree with the principles God has commanded his children to obey. Like parents, God doesn’t want his children to be hurt over the sin they can avoid. He wants them to succeed in life and he wants them to succeed without harming anyone else.
Almost everyone has heard the cliché “cleanliness is next to godliness.” Its not the cleanliness of the body God is concerned with but the purity of the heart. Your thoughts concern God because of what you are capable of doing. All because, your thoughts give birth to deeds and the words of your mouth.
Your effort to keep a godly lifestyle can keep your spirit from being contaminated by the evil that is presently corrupting the world. Being godly is a full time job because the corruption of the world is alert to your weaknesses and is ready to attack your life when you least expect it. You must make every effort to live a blameless life that will please God.
Consider the sons of Samuel who were appointed as judges over Israel.
Because of their actions the elders of Israel rebelled against God demanding a king. Samuel’s sons reflected the attitude they had towards God. Just as the sons of Samuel represented God, one rotten apple can corrupt the entire bushel. So remember this; when the rotten apple is in plain sight it will keep you from buying the bushel of apples. Be careful, consider that your Christ like attitude and influence on the world may encourage the ungodly to want and try to be godly.
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