CONSTANT UPGRADES

CONSTANT UPGRADES 

I was impressed by a devotional by Joe Stowell in Our Daily Bread (ODB) on Aug 18/13 that he called "Always An Upgrade" in which he said his wife Martie would often stop him on his way out the door to go to work and suggest his tie didn't match well with his shirt, or his slacks didn't go with his sports jacket or some other corrective improvement toward his outward appearance was needed. Apparently Joe usually took her advice, as most wise husbands would, since most wives are better equipped to judge such things. Then Joe switched to the topic of our inward character qualities, as compared to our outward appearance. And that is what I would like to draw your attention to in this article. As followers of Jesus our character should always match our outward behavior as a "citizen of God's Kingdom" because we are His "Ambassadors" (2 Cor 5:20) as Paul describes those who are "In Christ", or are "born again" believers. So we will look at a few passages of scripture that deal with our behavior based on our character. 

One of the best scripture passages I can think of for defining our behavior would be the third chapter of Paul's letter to the Colossian church. In the NLT version the heading for chapter three reads "Living the new life", and verses 1-17 are full of lots of instructions to individual believers, then from 18 to the end of the chapter it reads "Instructions for Christian Families". Paul starts the chapter with "Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand". In verse three he continues with "For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God". Then in verse five we read "So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don't be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshipping the things of this world". In verses 12-14 we read "Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other's faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts". From these verses I trust we can all see that there is much more to living a life that will please the Father than just "accepting Jesus" and going to heaven when we die!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                              24/08/13