What is the Christian life? Why do we follow God? Is it just so we can feel his peace? Have an easy life? Get rich? This is often what Christians say and how they live their lives, but it’s all wrong. These beliefs lead to an entitled mindset. These are people who only follow God for selfish reasons. This outlook turns God into a vending machine. At the core, being a Christian means we acknowledge God as the unbelievably good supreme power of the universe. It means we joyfully orient our lives around serving him because of all that he’s done for us. But how do we serve God?
God’s calling for all Christians
I’ve mentioned before that God has a general calling, but I haven’t gone much into detail. God loves you and wants the best for you. This ‘best’ is very different and far better than what the world can offer. God’s calling for all Christians may not sound that amazing. But, following him in this calling will result in true blessings like a closer relationship with our loving God, deep peace, and rest. I promise you, following God is worth it.
Jesus summed up this calling with just two commands in Matthew 22 verses 37-39 “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”
These are simple commands, but all encompassing. We are always on-duty, which is very tiring. We can’t live up to these commands on our own. Everyone falls short of what we need to do.
Fortunately, Jesus died on our behalf so our shortcomings can be forgiven. Living this Christian life is impossible if you haven’t yet humbled yourself before God and asked him to forgive you from your sins and accepted his gift of forgiveness through Jesus so you can be freed from your sins. Each and every day we also must ask the Holy Spirit to fill us with strength, wisdom, and love so we can continue following God. Without the Holy Spirit, the Christian life is overbearing slavery. With the Holy Spirit, the Christian life becomes a joyful and life-giving adventure.
Love the Lord Your God
There are two ways to love God. The first is to walk in a close relationship with him. The second is to live a holy life according to God’s word so we can be close with God. You can’t walk with God while walking in sin. However, you can focus on living a holy life without actually walking with God. So, the focus for living a holy life must be a close relationship with God, not so you can look down on others or puff yourself up with pride.
However, I’ve met many people who aren’t turning from sinful behaviors and still claim to be walking with God. They claim to feel God’s presence. Unfortunately, they are deceived. If they truly walked with God, he’d convict them of their sin.
Of course we all sin and God is still willing to work in and through us. No one will ever be completely holy. But, if someone is walking with God, you will see growth. You should see an eagerness to leave behind sinful ways because they recognize a closer relationship with God is worth it.
Love Your Neighbor as Yourself
There are two critical ways we can love others. We need to love people by meeting their physical and spiritual needs. This means we sacrifice for others. Whether it’s giving up our time, money, resources, or anything else, we are called to love our neighbors. One guy in Luke 10 asked Jesus “who is my neighbor?” Jesus clarified that everyone is our neighbor, including our enemies. That’s a pretty high standard right there.
The reason why we love others with everything we have is because we know that this world is not our home. Our home is in heaven, so we should sacrifice and give up our good and easy lives during this temporary time to show God’s love to others around us. If we walk with God, we will love others as God loves them. Love makes sacrifice so much easier.
The point of loving others is so they’ll see God’s love and hopefully turn back to him. This means sharing the gospel with friends, family, and even strangers. This world is going to crash and burn one day. We only have a limited amount of time to take part in rescuing them. Of course we can’t save people ourselves. But, we can help point people to the only one who can save them from their sins and their fast-approaching punishment.
The Christian Life
Following these two commands and four principles is the only true way to live. Everything else is empty. It’s a hard life, but it’s rich and rewarding. It’s a life of purpose, adventure, satisfaction, and peace.
We don’t deserve to live these wonderful lives. It’s only by God’s grace that we ourselves were saved, so how can we keep this grace to ourselves? It’s our duty as Christians to walk with God and reach out to others. This is the Christian life.
If you don’t know why you should even care about God and his calling, please check out my blog 5 Reasons Why You Can Trust God
God is raising an army with specialized teams, and he wants you on one of these Spec Ops teams. Check out my last post How to Join God’s Army
