Christians are to lead a life worthy of God

(1 Thessalonians 2:10-13)

The most important thing we can do as Christians is to lead a life worthy of God. The bottom line is that if we are truly following the ways of the Lord, then we must follow Him according to the ways that He seeks us to follow Him.

We cannot expect to be children of God, or to have the favour of the Lord if we choose to ignore His ways and try to find our own path. God has already specified the path we are to follow in Jesus Christ. So to lead a life worthy of God, we must listen to what He had to say and to take instruction and teaching from the Lord, doing what He wants.

So let us take a high level look at what it means to lead a life worthy of God

Lead a life worthy of God – Listen to Jesus

The very first thing we have to do is to listen to what Jesus had to say. Take note of this scripture:

He was still speaking, when lo, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” (Matthew 17:5)

This section scripture comes from the events of the Transfiguration. Jesus took three of His disciples up on the mount and He was transfigured before them as He spoke with Moses and Elijah.

But what is fascinating about this verse is that the words spoken above came from the Father, who is above all. He spoke to Peter and the disciples and His instructions were very pointed.

He said, “Listen to Him.” The Father told them to listen to the words of Jesus and what He had to say. And those instructions are still as relevant and important today as they were when God uttered them some two thousand years ago.

If we are to lead a life worthy of God, we have to first listen to what Jesus had to say. We need to listen to find out what it means to lead a life worthy of God.

Jesus came to teach us the ways of God and to provide the knowledge as to how to lead a life worthy of God. He taught the things of God so that we could understand what we ought and ought not do to please the Father and the Son.

Called into God’s Kingdom

When we look at this scripture today we see some other things as well.

“…to lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.” (1 Thessalonians 2:10-13)

The second half of verse 12 tells us that God calls His people into His own kingdom and glory. We are called to enter into His kingdom and His glory, just as He brought Jesus into His Kingdom and glory.

Jesus taught us in His conversation with Nicodemus how this happens. He said:

3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicode’mus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. (John 3:3-5)

So, if God is calling you into His kingdom and glory, we should listen to the words of Jesus that explains how we enter His kingdom. And Jesus said that to enter God’s kingdom we must be born anew, or born again.

In fact Jesus goes so far as to say that if you are NOT born anew, you can’t even “see” God’s kingdom, let alone enter into it.

So it is pretty important to understand how to be born anew. And therein lies the challenge. How does one get to be born anew?

Fortunately, Jesus continues on in this verse and tells us how. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” (Verse 5)

Being born anew of water is to be baptised in water. When we are baptised in water we die with Christ, taking on His death, and we are resurrected with Christ, taking on His resurrection to a new life and being born anew as a new creation in Jesus Christ.

The first step to being born anew is to be baptised in water. But we must also fully understand what baptism represents and what it means for it to be effective, and I will not cover that here, but I have covered it numerous times on this website.

The second part of being born anew is to receive the Holy Spirit, with all of the signs attending it, such as speaking in tongues. And in fact Jesus tells us further on in John 3 that you will know those who have been born anew of the Spirit because you will hear the “sound” of the Spirit. What is the “sound” of the Spirit? Speaking in tongues, just as the people heard the sound of the Spirit when the disciples received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and began speaking in tongues.

We must be baptised and receive the Holy Spirit to enter the kingdom of God.

I’m not saying you won’t be saved if you DON’T do this. That’s not what the Bible says even though some people preach such a thing.

But I know from experience that when you follow the instructions of the Lord as He laid them out, and that includes being baptised in water and receiving the Holy Spirit, your walk with Christ will be much better, deeper, and stronger.

What else should we know to lead a life worthy of God?

The essence of the walk that we walk with and in Jesus Christ is for the purpose of transformation into the image of Christ.

This work of transformation is not something we can accomplish alone. It is the work of the Lord, and to be more specific, it is the work of the Holy Spirit to transform us into the image of Christ.

The Bible tells us that we must be perfect.

”You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)

To lead a life pleasing to God you must be perfect as God the Father is perfect.

Now you may be thinking, “Impossible! No-one can be perfect!” And you would be correct if it was just people who were trying to attain perfection alone.

But God has given us the Holy Spirit to do the work of perfecting us and He has the full resources of God the Father at His disposal to make the transformation possible.

And furthermore, God established the process through Jesus for us to receive perfection by faith for the asking. God sets us free from sin and free from the law. He also declared us righteous by faith through His death and resurrection. If we are righteous, then we are perfect.

But that process rests only on faith until the Holy Spirit can do the work of perfecting us in ALL ways so that we act, behave, and think as God does.

All of these things and so much more lead to us being able to lead a life worthy of God. And it is ALL His doing because no person on earth is worthy of God.

We are worthy only because God makes us worthy. And to find out what it truly means to lead a life worthy of God we have to listen to Jesus and follow the path that He established, not try and make up our own path.

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