Today in church we had some people come up and test the 'fake' against the 'original.' Is it a real COACH bag or an imitation? Is it a real bowl of Cocoa Krispies or a knock-off? Is it really Elvis singing on the recording or an impersonator?
That's the question we then asked about ourselves. Are we real Christians or are we imitation believers? Ephesians 5:1 says we're to be imitators of God. Tough gig when God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent and eternal. Yet the Bible says it.
And in that passage it says the ways we imitate God are by walking in love -- by walking toward God and walking away from sin. But one of the reasons we end up with congregations full of bitter church people is because bitter church people walk away from sin - good for them - but they don’t walk in love.
So they’ve walked away from some of the worst things in life, but after 50 years of walking away - and this can happen to 20- and 30- and 40-year olds, too - now they find they have no love. All they have is what they’ve given up and they’re bitter because others haven’t given up what they’ve given up. And love has avoided them.
But Christ calls us to walk in love ... walking in love comes first. Love always does. It is the central piece to our life in Christ. GOD IS LOVE ... and ... WE LOVE BECAUSE CHRIST FIRST LOVED US.
That’s how the world knows we’re not a cheap imitation of a Christ-follower.
You will spend the rest of your life growing up into who you are in Christ - and you’ll do that by walking in love and walking away from sin. OR ... you’ll become a good religious person - you’ll be moral - and you’ll walk away from sin all right, but you won’t walk in love. You’ll walk away from the bad, but you won’t walk toward Christ. And the result is that you will actually do harm to your spiritual walk, your family's spiritual walk and you will prevent the possibility of darkness around you turning into light.
And this is so important because many of us are not intentionally walking in love - we’re not intentionally walking away from sin. Instead, we’ve kind of lulled ourselves into a spiritual sleepwalk.
It would be my dream for our city to say about KFA:
‘The people at that church just live differently. They’re normal, but there’s something about the way they live that is so appealing.’ AND ... ‘They sure do love people. They’re not imitation Christians ... they're the real thing.’
We’re getting there.
And be blessed.
6 comments:
Not usre I agree with the comment that one cannot marry a believer. One may be passing up an opportunity to change that person's life and maybe their family.
I know some people who say they are non believers, but live a more exemplary life than some of the so called believers.
We call that 'missionary' dating and 'missionary' marriage. For every couple you give me where an unbeliever marrying a believer has worked out in the salvation of that unbeliever, and i will name 100 where it has led to destruction. You could throw a rock in our auditorium and hit 25 people who would testify to the agony they live with daily in such a situation.
I'm just preaching what the Word says. If we want to add to the Word, that is each person's prerogative -at their great peril.
There are plenty of exemplary lifestyles in people that are not believers. That has little to do with Salvation - which is not by works, but by faith. You will still find plenty of discrepancies between people of faith and no-faith, irrespective of an exemplary lifestyle.
I agree completely PK, and yes partially based on the Bible, but moreso based on my own daily wrestle with it. It is by far the most difficult thing to try to do what you believe to be right but still respect your spouse, and it's a struggle I wish upon no one. I beg of everyone considering marriage to make sure to be equally yoked and not to rely on what you hope may happen or how they might change. You can still change their life without marrying them first. If it's God's will, he will move mountains for you to be together.
Prior to marriage I dated unbelievers. I cannot thank God enough for not allowing me to marry an unbeliever - it would have been a lonely life in my Christian walk. I married a man who told me from day one that Jesus was first in his life. Much of the joy in our marriage has comes from sharing our faith with each other.
PK, I know of one young woman at work who is a believer. She seems to be a strong Christian from all I know of her. She just married a non-believer. He seems like a decent guy, but I was surprised she did it. I wonder what the future holds for the two of them...
Two things come to mind. I think it is ALWAYS a bad idea to go into a marriage thinking you will change the other person. Nine times out of ten, whatever characteristics they had will just be more evident the more time you spend together. Far better to wait for the right person...you have your whole life to spend together, so make sure it is right first.
The other thing is this: If a woman is to be submissive to her husband, and he is not a believer, what types of issues would that raise? I don't know, maybe most modern women don't follow that, but it does make me wonder.
I have been single for 10 years, but if I ever do remarry,I will wait for the man God has for me and he will be a man I respect completely, so it will be a pleasure to submit to him.
I agree with PK, this was an interesting topic to communicate with people who have spouse's that are not believer and sorry they made this decision. Sad:(
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