May 15th 2022
If You Believe God Exists, You Should Be Striving To Please Him With How You Conduct Your Life?
1 Thessalonians 4:1 (NIV)
Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.
You will read the term becoming more Christ-like very often in the VOWs written each week, as that process it ultimately important for all professing Christians to be working on for the rest of our lives. While it is impossible for any of us to obtain, that is to become like Jesus Christ, it is still a task which should change your life for the better. Our inherited sinful nature inhibits our ability to become sinless, like Jesus was when He walked this earth as a man. Paul is urging the people of the Thessalonian church, and us, to work on this process, as Paul wrote, “Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.“
As Paul wrote about how we need to be trying always to please God in our everyday lives, “we instructed you how to live in order to please God.” While we will always have this sinful nature, Paul also wrote about how we can become more Christ-like with the help of the Holy Spirit through our immortal being allowing us to overcome our sinful nature. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. (Romans 8:8-10).
Paul also gives as a great hope here that we can overcome our tenet to sin when we rely on the Holy Spirit, “if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.” So, in effect our mortal sinful body can be controlled through our reliance on the support of the Spirit, working in and through our immortal spirit.
Paul wrote about how we need to look beyond our present situations to eagerly anticipate our eternal reward instead of dwelling our current existence. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
Do you feel renewed daily as you work on becoming more Christ-like? We should as Paul himself exhibited such an attitude. Paul wrote about this for us, ” So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Do not limit you joy to only your current situations that you are living in and through! Always try to look forward to the award Jesus paid ahead for you when He rose from the dead as the first born into a new eternal life.
Trying to visualize Jesus in this current world is very limited and thus may not give us much joy. When believers leave this mortal life, it appears will be escorted to a place created for us by Jesus. On that day we will see Jesus for the first time face-to-face. Are you ready for this upcoming meeting? We cannot visualize Jesus in this cursed world. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:12-13). You will know Jesus and He will also acknowledge you as a member of His family!
Paul wrote the love verses, which seem to me to be projecting a perfect form of love that will not be completely possible to attain in this cursed world. This is the type of complete love we will experience when we fist meet Jesus face-to-face. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a).
This seems to be a big part of becoming more Christ-like that we would aim to accomplish to show some semblance of the perfect love, which was displayed by Jesus when He chose to die for your sins. In striving to gain this perfect loving felling we become ready to receive such perfection when we join Jesus, when we leave this mortal life. We should be working on perfecting our ability to love every day in this current life. This was started immediately, when we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
The writer of Hebrews tells us that no human being can please God unless we have faith that He exists. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6). If you believe God exists, you should be striving to please Him with how you conduct your life?
Your brother in life through Adam, your brother in eternity through Jesus,
Bob Moak
1 Thessalonians 4:1 (NIV)
Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.
You will read the term becoming more Christ-like very often in the VOWs written each week, as that process it ultimately important for all professing Christians to be working on for the rest of our lives. While it is impossible for any of us to obtain, that is to become like Jesus Christ, it is still a task which should change your life for the better. Our inherited sinful nature inhibits our ability to become sinless, like Jesus was when He walked this earth as a man. Paul is urging the people of the Thessalonian church, and us, to work on this process, as Paul wrote, “Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.“
As Paul wrote about how we need to be trying always to please God in our everyday lives, “we instructed you how to live in order to please God.” While we will always have this sinful nature, Paul also wrote about how we can become more Christ-like with the help of the Holy Spirit through our immortal being allowing us to overcome our sinful nature. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. (Romans 8:8-10).
Paul also gives as a great hope here that we can overcome our tenet to sin when we rely on the Holy Spirit, “if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.” So, in effect our mortal sinful body can be controlled through our reliance on the support of the Spirit, working in and through our immortal spirit.
Paul wrote about how we need to look beyond our present situations to eagerly anticipate our eternal reward instead of dwelling our current existence. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
Do you feel renewed daily as you work on becoming more Christ-like? We should as Paul himself exhibited such an attitude. Paul wrote about this for us, ” So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Do not limit you joy to only your current situations that you are living in and through! Always try to look forward to the award Jesus paid ahead for you when He rose from the dead as the first born into a new eternal life.
Trying to visualize Jesus in this current world is very limited and thus may not give us much joy. When believers leave this mortal life, it appears will be escorted to a place created for us by Jesus. On that day we will see Jesus for the first time face-to-face. Are you ready for this upcoming meeting? We cannot visualize Jesus in this cursed world. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:12-13). You will know Jesus and He will also acknowledge you as a member of His family!
Paul wrote the love verses, which seem to me to be projecting a perfect form of love that will not be completely possible to attain in this cursed world. This is the type of complete love we will experience when we fist meet Jesus face-to-face. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a).
This seems to be a big part of becoming more Christ-like that we would aim to accomplish to show some semblance of the perfect love, which was displayed by Jesus when He chose to die for your sins. In striving to gain this perfect loving felling we become ready to receive such perfection when we join Jesus, when we leave this mortal life. We should be working on perfecting our ability to love every day in this current life. This was started immediately, when we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
The writer of Hebrews tells us that no human being can please God unless we have faith that He exists. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6). If you believe God exists, you should be striving to please Him with how you conduct your life?
Your brother in life through Adam, your brother in eternity through Jesus,
Bob Moak
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