Choosing To Live Like Him

This morning I am reading from Paul's letter to the Colossians 3:5-8, 12-14 NIV:

[5] "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. [6] Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. [7] You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. [8] But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips."

[12] "Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. [13] Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. [14] And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."

These verses offer up a very nice contrast of the worldly life and life as a Christian, as they pertain to pursuits and character. I find it interesting that Paul, in both cases, speaks as if these actions and character traits are ours to produce. We can allow the bad list, verses 5-8, to be in our lives or we can clothe ourselves with the Godly virtues listed in verses 12-14. The choices and the resulting fruit of those choices are ours to make and exhibit.

We can choose to put to death those things that belong to our earthly nature, and we can rid ourselves of the rest of the list. Paul is writing to the Colossians encouraging them to do so, which means that for some of those early Christians, they had not yet done so. They were saved and following Christ, yet there was residue of their previous lives as unsaved people pursuing whatever they wanted. Paul calls them to a life of imitating Christ, for none of these are found in Him.

There are those that think salvation is enough, and then that they can go on living life like the rest of the world, and that is not the case. To be Christian, we are called to be like Christ. We are called to dispose of those things that are not like Him, and take up those that are like Him. This is the part of working out our salvation that is our choice. We are given grace and power to change our lives, but the choice to change must be made by us. The outer parts of our lives, our words, actions and thoughts must be brought into alignment with the inner spiritual reality of our new life in Christ. We are responsible for our actions, our words and our thoughts. This is part of free will, we can choose salvation and we can choose how we will behave.

The good news is that if we are called to be like Christ, the help is there to do so. The Lord does not call us to an impossible task, but will rather show us the way as we embrace relationship with Him. That too is part of the requirement for all Christians, relationship with the Lord. We can't become like Him, if we don't know Him. We must know His words, but also His heart and character, and this is best accomplished through daily interaction. The amazing thing is that we are not interacting with a historical figure, but with the Lord who is alive and with us daily. He is completely aware of our world, our circumstances, our struggles and our weakness and because of this He is uniquely positioned to help us. He will guide us to the right decisions, but we must make those decisions. He will show us the right choice, but we must choose. He is like the ultimate life coach, for He will never forsake us, give up on us or get tired of us. If we make the wrong choice, He will not walk away, but will be there to help us with the next choice.

The second list of characteristics is exactly what I experience from the Lord in my relationship with Him. He is compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, patient, forgiving and loving. He is never angry, rude, overpowering, harsh, sharp, condemning, hateful, or judgmental. Any time I turn to Him, He is welcoming and present, ready to help, ready to encourage, ready to show me the best path forward. There are many times that I don't bother to listen, or flat out choose to do the opposite, but He never changes His reaction to me. His mercies are truly new every morning, and even every minute. I have the opportunity to be like Him, and it is my choice whether I am, or not. Personally, I choose to try my best to be like Him every day, constantly ridding myself of anything that is not of Him, and choosing to clothe myself in those characteristics and heart attitudes that are like Him.

Ultimately, He desires that we unite ourselves to Him, so that the world might see Him in and through us. This is the best path, the one that will bear the most fruit and bring about the Kingdom realities here on earth. So let us be encouraged to choose today to live in union with Him, and show the world what the Lord is really like. We have the choice, let us choose wisely. Let us choose to live like Him.