The Culture Of Good Works: The Believers Lifestyle

The believer is by nature a bearer of all the traits of God. Like a child fathered by a man with certain attributes, the attributes of God reside inside of him. It doesn't matter the situation he finds himself in, he's still a carrier of all that God passed on to him in the new birth.

While this is most definitely true, it is still very possible for the believer to live like the rest of the world who are not born again. It is possible for him to continue in the habits that are not expected of professing believers. This happens mainly as a result of an unrenewed mindset or pattern of thoughts.

That is why the scriptures encourage us in the book of Romans, chapter 12 and verse 2, to get our thinking pattern in alignment with God's word in order to navigate through life differently.

Rom 12:2 KJV And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

The Message translation captures this portion of the scriptures beautifully. Below is how it puts it:

"Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, and develops well-formed maturity in you."

So by fixing our attention on God, and filling our minds with His words, we see our lives changing beautifully and producing good results.

At every moment of your life, you must always remember that the believer is called to do good works. God expects that of you because He has put His traits (grace, righteousness, holiness, reverence etc) deep within your Spirit. These empower you to say "No" to ungodliness, temptations and so on.

Tit 2:11-13 KJV For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.

From the above scriptures (Titus 2:11-13), we see that God's grace doesn't only save us from our sins like almost everyone would affirm, it also teaches us to go about living godly lives, saying no to all forms of ungodliness and worldly lusts.

Are there going to be times you miss it as a Christian? Definitely. But each time you fall, you get up and try by all means to keep standing. Taking the grace of God as a license to keep living in sins that even the world frown at, is not only a very foolish thing to do, it is also a very ungodly one.

Don't ever let the enemy rope you into thinking that it doesn't matter. That you can do whatever you like and get away with it at every moment. Once you take that mindset upon you, it's just a matter of time before you start living licentiously even without knowing it.

Apart from the eternal consequences of losing your heavenly rewards (take note, your rewards, not your salvation), you may end up bringing a whole lot of heartaches on yourself and your loved ones.

Jesus called us the Lights of the world. But He didn't stop there. He also urged us to LET our Lights so much SHINE for the world to see and glorify our Father in heaven.

How do we let our lights shine? By consciously walking in good works. Doing the things that He Jesus would do if He were on earth today. Godly works!

At every moment of our lives, we must always remember that only Jesus is our perfect standard and try by all means to emulate His lifestyle. His love for humanity, forgiving heart, giving, compassion, ability to build up the downtrodden etc.

That way, we will not only be like Christ in our nature (a kind of head knowledge), but also by our lifestyles (by heart, practically).

I hope this blesses you. Glory to God!