WORTHY BEHAVIOR

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God.

Philippians 1:27-28

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

There has been many a minister of the Gospel who ended up falling from their vocation because of sinful misconduct. I’m not talking about just committing about losing their pastoral position for being a sinner. If that was the standard, then no one would be qualified to be a preacher. No, I am talking about serious transgressions, ones that violate the trust their congregations placed in them as their leader and actually damaged the cause of the Gospel. Do a quick search on the internet and you will see reports of ministers arrested and charged for financially defrauding their churches, engaging in prostitution, marketing child pornography, and taking sexual liberties with members of their congregations to include children. It’s disturbing and sickening behavior, the kind of iniquity that brings the Christian church universal under attack and turns countless numbers of people away from the salvation God freely offers.

One thing is for certain. When one becomes a Christian and, in doing so, receives the responsibility to carry out the Great Commission, they inherit a very high level of responsibility in the sight of their Lord and others, a responsibility that one should never lose sight of.

Without question, our Savior Jesus and the God who sent Him to save us have the highest expectations for anyone who serve in their name. After all, Christians here on earth who have been tasked with helping share the good news of salvation with others serve as emissaries of the highest order, representatives of the Lord Most High. Given this, Christ followers have an obligation to serve with the highest level of integrity and a steadfast commitment to righteousness. For the command the Apostle Paul gives to the Christian believers in Phillipi equally applies to us today

“Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.”

Worthy conduct is conduct that won’t discredit or dishonor our Lord Jesus and His (and our) Father God. It’s a conduct that we can’t achieve by our own merit because we don’t possess the strength or power on our own to withstand the attacks of Satan, and as we have covered in prior messages, especially from the sixth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, Christians are under attack daily.

Why?

Because our spiritual nemesis is working overtime every single day to get Christian believers to behave in ways that are unworthy of the Gospel of Jesus...and he is succeeding in many cases.

So how do we avoid this and ensure our conduct is worthy?

Go back to our passage from the first chapter of his letter to the Philippians and we find the answer. The Apostle advises the Philippian Christians to “stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel”.

The scriptures calls for unity in the Holy Spirit with every Christian allowing the Lord to guide their behavior.

This how the Christian church will get to the place where there will be universal conduct worthy of the Gospel of Christ Jesus. It will be how all Christ believers can stand firm against Satan and anyone he brings to oppose the salvation work in the harvest field of our world. And it will be the sign that Christians are secure in their salvation and living in ways that are distinct and sanctified from the world’s ways, the ways that will only lead a person to eternal destruction.

Friends, as Christians, we can’t allow ourselves to fall into sin, behave in ways that are unworthy of the Gospel, and through that behavior, disempower the very Gospel we are called on to share with others. To avoid this, all Christians need to make sure they don the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-17) every day as they step out into life to carry out Jesus’ Great Commission calling.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com