LIVE A LIFE WORTHY OF THE CALLING YOU HAVE RECEIVED
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans: “ Wandel waardig die roeping waarmee julle geroep is”
Translator: Robin Barker
Someone wrote to me as follows:
I have a request – Could you take a minute and send out something to us as your email congregation about this disgusting saying: “If that is how a Christian lives, I do not want to be one.”
It is naturally really a disgusting/repulsive statement to make, as the person who wrote to me mentioned but in my opinion it is even worse than disgusting/repulsive, it is actually a very dangerous statement to make and the danger that lies within such a statement, as I see it, is that many people actually, and I must say the most people, who make this statement, who become lost in it, at the same time think of themselves as Christians. That is actually, because I am thinking of those people, why I am writing this about the statement.
Let me show you why I personally think that it is such a dangerous statement to make.
The person who says: "If that is how a Christian lives, I do not want to be one” say at least:
“I have heard about Jesus but have not yet made a final decision or if I want to follow Him or not.”
If such a person likes it or not, what the person actually is saying:
“At this point in time I am against Jesus.”
MAT 12:30 Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me scatters.
If the statement is:
"If that is how a Christian lives, I do not want to be one.”
This means that I have researched into Christianity but for whatever reason, have decided it is not for me, and the following is applicable to me:
2 PE 2:21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.
2 PE 2:22 Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”
So, as it looks to me, it does not matter from which way you look at the statement: " If that is how a Christian lives, I do not want to be one” – The person who says this and means it, has a huge problem.
From this point on I want to share with Christians that have this certainty:
“I have accepted Jesus as my Redeemer and Saviour.”
I would like to say that the following is upon/applicable to us, Jesus’s followers:
We are not perfect yet, but we will certainly be perfect one day and in the meantime, before that day, we have this certain knowledge – praise the Lord – we are completely saved by Jesus and on our way to Heaven.
So, we are not ‘perfect’ but we are ‘completely’ saved!
JOHN 3:17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.
JOHN 3:18 Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.JOHN 5:24 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.”
JOHN 8:51 “Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.”
JOHN 10:27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
JOHN 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.
However, to use my great hero Paul’s style of writing:
“So what will we say about all of these things?”
Does that mean that the sacrifice that was made on Golgotha for us, gives us the freedom to sin?
ROM 6:1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
ROM 6:2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
Of course we still continue to sin but not on purpose. Or then, it should of course not be deliberate.
I share with you two simple examples and I believe, that if you listen to the Holy Spirit, you will know in your heart what the difference is between deliberate sin, what a child of our Lord should not do and ‘stumble’, something that we do often because our enemy is the god of evil:
A man walks and bumps his shin bone and curses.
He did not intend to curse at that moment in time, but if he has an intermit relationship with Jesus, he will really not feel good about what he has just done and he will ask our Lord for forgiveness for what he had just happened.
A man comes into the house and without him meaning it, slams the door. His wife was frightened out of her socks and screams a curse word at her husband about what has just happened.
It was not something she had contemplated about doing but if she has an intermit relationship with our Lord, she will really not feel happy about what she has just done and she will ask our Lord and her husband for forgiveness.
The following from the Word is applicable in my opinion for both these simple events:
JAMES 3:2 We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.
One thing, in my opinion, that is not for someone who has an intermit relationship with Jesus, is having wilful sin.
The dictionary defines ‘wilful’ and ‘wilfulness’ as follows:
Wilful/Wilfulness, 1- (of a bad or harmful act) intentional; deliberate.
"Wilful acts of damage". 2 – having or showing a stubborn and determined intention to do as one wants, regardless of the consequences.
For those who are deliberately wilful about what they say or do, that should not be part of a true follower of Jesus, I leave you with the following from the Word of our Lord:
HEB 10:26-29
26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,
27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.
28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?
For all of our Lord’s followers who, like me, regularly stumble, I leave you with the following from our Lord’s Word:
EPH 4:1-3
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
PHI 4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
Also remember child of our Lord that every time you stumble, to definitely talk with our Lord about it and confess your sin. Because you have this assured knowledge:
1 JOHN 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
If you are addicted to, for example smoking, which I was also addicted to –
Just remember, that our Lord knows that at the moment you are addicted to that but you must never think or accept that it must be that way.
You must continually work to break the addiction and do everything that is humanly possible to be healed and it is most important that you continually talk to our Lord about your addiction, especially as soon as you do what you do to satisfy your addiction.
1 JOHN 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
Greetings,
Sakkie