that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,(Philippians 2:15 – ESV)
Living the beautiful life, from a Biblical, Christian perspective, means living as a light of Christ (Matthew 5:16 / Galatians 2:20). Living the beauty of Christ means that no matter what this world can do to me I can still live for the glory of God, I can still live the beautiful life; I can still represent Christ to the world.
Paul is in jail when he writes this yet he can say these things. It was not that he didn’t want out but his first priority was not himself but God, and he was able to do the full ministry even from a jail cell. If you are full of the Spirit you are fulfilling your ministry wherever you go and wherever God leads you in His providence, even a jail cell. The Word is your life in any and every situation you find yourself in; He is there with you (Psalm 23). Paul tells us that even if he is going to die in that jail he will rejoice and so should they because he lived the beautiful life (Philippians 1:20-21).
Most people aren’t doing that, living to show others how beautiful Christ is, they are just satisfied with being saved or they have the material, social, and emotional things they want and think that this is the beautiful life, and they give God praise for that and think that they are living God’s best. They have seen passages such as Romans 3:25-26 with them as the starting point, but when we have our order right, when we see it really is about demonstrating God’s righteousness we will want to live for Him. In light of what we have seen about the value of God, how now shall we live? Real living in supernatural life through natural lives; people need to see Christ demonstrated in all sorts of situations. That is one reason why we are left in those sometimes desperate situations, so people can see Christ's light shining in a dark place.
We work out our salvation with fear and trembling because bad things will happen all around you all the time and you must carry on in the character of Christ. God is placing you in situations, and where He places you He graces you. Even if it is your fault that you are in the mess you are in God wants you to live His life on the way out of that place. God uses us even in our mess to bless others and to learn lessons and to live the beautiful life.
It is okay to want good things, but don’t be like the rest of the world and show doubt for God when things go bad. Then you will be a light in a dark place and your life will proclaim the power of God’s grace. Christianity is not the way to the beautiful life it is the beautiful life wherever it is found in truth. Jesus is beautiful so we can live the beautiful life in any circumstance.
5 comments:
Christianity is not the way to the beautiful life it is the beautiful life wherever it is found in truth.
Amen! This is so true. Father cause us all to understand fully the truth of this post and to put it in action in our own lives.
Jesus is beautiful so we can live the beautiful life in any circumstance...
I am going to add that to the end of the post...
I'll take that beautiful life over an abundant life anyday!
It is the abundant life...biblically speaking, but of course people take John 10:10 and make it say what they want, redefining "abundant life" to mean things of this life in material or other terms rather than the fruit of the Spirit...
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