How Shall We Live?

How ought we to live our Christian lives? I see this as an incredibly important topic... One which deserves further study. How should we live our Christian lives, day to day, moment by moment? Should we be living our lives by looking deep inside of ourselves, with our entire focus and affection on how to better ourselves, becoming more disciplined in our devotions, bible study, getting more involved in church activities etc... Or should we live spontaneous spiritual lives, resting in the finished work of Christ, believing moment to moment the promises of God, and rejoicing in the hope of eternal life? These are the questions that intrigue me and I hope that they will at least raise some important questions.

I see a great danger in the methods and manners that some professing Christians are living their lives by. They are seeking to go deeper into the Christian life and in so doing are taking their focus off Christ and His righteousness. Trying to "die to self", and "crucifying the flesh", seeking humility (and taking great pride in that), fighting against the world, the flesh, and the devil, trying to overcome them with scheduled prayer, bible reading, fasting, rudiments, traditions and wisdom of the world. It will work to a certain extent... The same way it would work for a Muslim or a Mormon. It's all deeply rooted in self and I believe like Paul that it is no longer I but Christ that lives in me. Self died on the cross. All that is left is a new creature in Christ Jesus. The Christian life is not hard. It's not difficult when you believe, but the hard thing for some is to believe, and believe that it really is that simple. Many people make it so confusing and I believe it is forever the work of the devil to make it so.

2Co 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

2Co 1:12 For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, NOT WITH FLESHLY WISDOM, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.

What would fleshly wisdom be? I believe that it would be wisdom that the world would deem to be wise. Anybody, Jew or Greek, Buddhist or Hindu would see the wisdom in living a disciplined spiritual life. Should we shun anything that the world esteems? Absolutely not. But the Apostle Paul does warn that we should not be beguiled with enticing words after these things and not after Christ. I will use the God's word as an example. Is the law bad? No it is not. Would it be bad for me to do the things in the law? Absolutely not. Should I live by the law and not faith in Christ? There is the difference. We are not to live after Christian life principles. We are to live by faith, with Christ fully in our spiritual crosshairs, so to speak.

Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and THE LIFE WHICH I NOW LIVE IN THE FLESH I LIVE BY THE FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

2Co 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

Rom 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.

That is how we should live. In a pool of faith, moment to moment. Me living in my reality with my focus on my Christian life is not faith. That would be sight. It all boils down to motivation. Do your good works come out of a pool of faith, or out of self? What I see is that so many professing Christians are so enamored with wanting to do something that they never fully rest in Christ's finished work. They never fully enjoy and are thankful for what Jesus did while He was here on earth. Every time someone is thankful for the finished work on the cross, there is always that, "Ya but you got to do your part you know". I know that the question many are asking right now is, "Should we not do any good works?". It is not good works that God hates. It is good works that ignore His works that He hates. God will not have us glorying in our flesh in His presence. Whatever is not of faith is sin and we are to live our lives by faith in the Son of God. What we need then is to know what we have in Christ. How God views us is absolutely critical to the way we live our lives. The bible says that we are dead and our lives are hid with Christ, in God. It also says that we have been crucified with Christ. We are in Christ, members of His physical body, part of His history. One with Jesus. Christ is our life. How can we die to ourselves if our lives are hid in Christ? How can we crucify the flesh if our flesh was crucified with His? How can we build upon our righteousness when Christ is our righteousness? Why should we fight and strive against the world, the flesh, and the devil when we are in Christ and He has already overcome them all? Is Christ not freed from sin? Seeing that we are in Him and members of His body, are not we also? Are we not overwhelming conquerors through Him? Can we improve on that? I think if we all could just read scripture and believe what it says, we would start living that overcoming life by faith and God would get the glory and not us. That's as simple as it gets.

An added note. The word discipline only appears once in the bible in the book of Job. What if we led disciplined lives (in reference to relationship) with our family and spouses? What would it look like? Scheduled appointment times perhaps, with detailed itineraries of what activities would take place. Sound intimate to you? Absolutely absurd. I wonder what God thinks when we have scheduled worship, prayer, and devotions...? When our spiritual lives are planned out to the last detail, is our relationship real? When our relationship with God is just going through the motions, does it please Him? If it is not spontaneous, isn't it just acting or going through the motions to make us feel better? Do we really know God or are our lives just based on a belief system, a doctrine or just another empty religion? Without faith it is impossible to please Him and that is how we approach God and relate to Him.