Insights on Christian living...

The Christian faith is a lifestyle, a daily lifestyle which qualifies it to be a process over just an event, a marathon over just a hundred meter sprint! 

Imagine running a marathon armed with a training for a hundred meter sprint? Though both disciplines require exercise and a track to run in, their nature and rules of engagement are most certainly different.

Such is our Christian walk, it’s a long, windy road and requires patience and perseverance while abiding in the leading of God through our ever-close and willing companion, the Holy Spirit. As I reflected on the writings of Paul in the New Testament, it dawned on me how significant the working and leading of the Holy Spirit was strong in his understanding and sharing of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In his epistles, the apostle Paul alludes to the two fold work of the Holy Spirit in that He (the Holy Spirit) justifies and sanctifies. 

Justification is an event that happens when we receive the Holy Spirit. Sanctification, on the other hand, becomes a continual and daily process. 

In my continued study of the epistle to Thessalonians by Paul in Chapter 2 Paul commences by narrating how he ended up in Thessalonica by saying  (in verses 1-4) ,“You know, brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not without results. ² We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition. ³ For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. ⁴ On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts”

Paul builds his ministry by referring to how his commitment in the Lord was his strength. He could have pointed at other areas as his strength, but he chose the relationship he had with God as his foundation for witnessing. Of interest to note, is how his testimony to others was not an easy process yet in it all, for the sake of the gospel, he endured and encouraged his children in the faith.

My thinking is that his passionate inspiration to live out his Christian witness despite all hardships was because he constantly recognized the working power and encouragement of the Holy Spirit as he engaged in the work of the Lord.  Acts 20:22-24 notes Paul’s very words, “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there ²³ I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. ²⁴ However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace. Paul knew that a Christian lifestyle meant a total surrender to the will and leading of the Father through the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

For me the authoritative command of his life emanated from his mature relationship with God. He was able to preach, teach and study the word effectively because he lived out his belief practically. He had modeled his lifestyle to them and the chapters of 1 Thessalonians beautifully presents his life as an encouragement to what he desired for them to live out as their gift to the Father, because of the faith they had received in spite of the many stumbling blocks.

Verse 8 touches and warms me so much.“⁸ so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well” Paul championed effective Christian living hence he was an effective minister to those whom he witnessed to. Furthermore, he boasted not in his ability but in the leading and power of the Holy Spirit, the justification he possessed in him and the continual sanctification he enjoyed by being in the Lord! Which justification and sanctification we all posses too by virtue being born again in the Lord!

(Verse 13-14) is Paul’s joy to appreciate the Thessalonian believers for the fruits of their faith in spite of the hardships they were facing because of that faith, “¹³ And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. ¹⁴ For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own people the same things those churches suffered from the Jews” Paul here had effectively modeled to them the true Christian lifestyle and they were in turn fruits of the same witness!

True Christian living involves justification and sanctification in Christ

Let us pray

God thanks for today for the revelation of your holy word of such richness we posses because we are in you and of you. Give us conviction of heart and mind of how much you love us, and how much you want to achieve in and through us for your glory that we may fully and trustfully lay our lives down at your feet. In Jesus name we ask and pray for strength as we take the Christian marathon knowing fully well that you alone are our abiding wisdom and courage, Amen! 

By Archieford Muchaka