Pursue Righteousness, Faith, Love..

“So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” (2 Timothy 2:22-26 ESV)

When we believe in Jesus Christ with God-persuaded faith in him we are crucified with him in death to sin and raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness, no longer to live as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. Therefore, sin must no longer be what we practice, i.e. what we obey, for if sin is what we obey it leads to death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it leads to righteousness and its end is eternal life.

[Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Ephesians 4:17-32; Titus 2:11-14]

Therefore, if we are true believers in Christ, and we are thus his followers (his disciples), then we are to flee sinful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. And righteousness is all that is deemed right in the eyes of God. And faith is divine persuasion, which comes from God, and is gifted to us by God, and is not of our own doing, so we don’t get to define faith. God does. And he defines faith by our obedience, i.e. faith = obedience.

[Hebrews 12:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-10; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 8:51; John 14:15-24; John 15:10; Matthew 7:21-23; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:24]

And love is agape love which prefers what God prefers. And God prefers all that is holy, righteous, godly, upright, morally pure, honest, faithful, and obedient to him and to his New Covenant commandments. It is a love which centers in moral preference. So we prefer to live through Christ, and to choose his choices, and to obey them in his power, and to walk in holiness and in righteousness and no longer in sin. For Jesus died on that cross so that we would die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness.

[1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:15,21; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Luke 9:23-26]

Now, as the Lord’s disciples, and as those who are thus his representatives, we must consider that how we live and the things that we say and do reflect who we really are and what we really believe, and they give testimony to what our relationship with Jesus Christ really is. So we must guard against engaging ourselves in ignorant and foolish controversies that go nowhere and that accomplish nothing good. And there are people out there who are going to try to bait us into such conversations, but we must avoid them.

Now, this is not saying that we should not defend our faith, or that we should not expose the fruitless deeds of darkness for what they are, or that we should not point out the lies that people are telling and that we should not tell the truth. We should do that. But we must be careful that we are not led into ignorant and useless conversations that go nowhere. We must be wise and discerning and pray about what our responses should be and what we should and should not say. For we want to reflect Jesus Christ.

And when this says that we should be kind to everyone, please do not get caught up in the thing of lying to people just to make them feel good, and then call that being kind. Lies are never kind, no matter how you dress them up. Kindness is telling people what they need to hear, not necessarily what they want to hear, as long as it is spoken in love. So speaking the truth of the gospel is kind. Telling people that they need to turn from their sins and follow Jesus in obedience to have eternal life is kind.

And enduring evil is not engaging in evil in any manner. It is not tolerating evil in the sense of making excuses for it, either in one’s own life or in the lives of others who profess faith in Jesus Christ. It is enduring evil done against us in the way of persecutions, rejections, false accusations, and mistreatment of any kind, because we are following Jesus Christ with our lives in faithful service to him. But we can correct our opponents, as long as we do it with controlled strength and not with brute force.

For the goal of all of this is to bring others to genuine walks of faith and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ. So it is important that we represent Christ well in how we treat others and in all our actions and words and attitudes and behaviors. And this is not claiming absolute perfection, but we should be those who are continually growing and maturing in our walks of faith who are continually becoming more like Jesus in character and who are not reverting back to our old sinful ways.

[Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

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