BE LIKE CHRIST; we are bid to become more CHRIST-like, having become one with HIM; stripping off the old self, and stepping into the spirit! Gone are the ways the world taught us, and encouraged us to exist in; as we take on our TRUE REALITY AS HIS CHURCH, HIS Children, HIS own---
Many who proclaim CHRIST as their LORD, and SAVIOUR, yet exist in the flesh, in the world, and it's ways; they imagine they can have it both ways, and/or, are unwilling to make the improvements which ARE standard FOR Christians! These are engaged in matters of the world, they appease their carnal desires, and pretty much do whatever they want, believing they are just in doing so, DESPITE the substantial instructions which are in place for our ease of transformation; NOT that we will be perfect, or perfected, quite yet, but that DAILY we endeavour TO learn, and to alter what might cause us to stumble, and fall; this we do WITH the aid of THE HOLY SPIRIT, and THE WORD...
It is bewildering the number of CHURCH leaders whom skim over instruction, instead the focus upon Salvation alone, void of the inner workings which accompany Consecration! Therefore there are many who believe only in thought, and only profess with their mouths, but their existence speaks loudly...
Humility, obedience, self-control, gentleness, kindness, and many right-minded behaviours prove us, as they show the world HOW *GOD* IS IN us, and working through us! It is part, and parcel TO SHINING OF HIM, none of which we can do IF we are still thinking, speaking, acting, and reacting in ways which do NOT reflect HIM, or HIS work in us this far...
Right now, the world is full of self-inclination, hostility, violence, hatred, and crassness! It is made worse WHEN people who claim to be OF *GOD*, speak, act, and react according TO the world INSTEAD of doing so IN SPIRIT, because it DOESN'T inspire, and DOESN'T point TO THE LORD! It adds to the confusion, and those delusions about HIM which ARE more obvious as the days go by! Let us BE who HE CREATED us, and CHOSE us to be; let us EVER SHINE OF HIM, FOR HIS GLORY, AND the sake of souls...
PHILIPPIANS 2: 1-11...
1+++Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion,
2+++make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
3+++Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;
4+++do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
5+++Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
6+++who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7+++but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
8+++Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
9+++For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
10+++so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11+++and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Here are further exhortations to Christian duties; to like-mindedness and lowly-mindedness, according to the example of the Lord Jesus. Kindness is the law of Christ's kingdom, the lesson of his school, the livery of his family. Several motives to brotherly love are mentioned. If you expect or experience the benefit of God's compassions to yourselves, be compassionate one to another. It is the joy of ministers to see people like-minded. Christ came to humble us, let there not be among us a spirit of pride. We must be severe upon our own faults, and quick in observing our own defects, but ready to make favourable allowances for others. We must kindly care for others, but not be busy-bodies in other men's matters. Neither inward nor outward peace can be enjoyed, without lowliness of mind.
The example of our Lord Jesus Christ is set before us. We must resemble him in his life, if we would have the benefit of his death.
Notice the two natures of Christ; his Divine nature, and human nature. Who being in the form of God, partaking the Divine nature, as the eternal and only-begotten Son of God, Joh 1:1, had not thought it a robbery to be equal with God, and to receive Divine worship from men. His human nature; herein he became like us in all things except sin. Thus low, of his own will, he stooped from the glory he had with the Father before the world was. Christ's two states, of humiliation and exaltation, are noticed. Christ not only took upon him the likeness and fashion, or form of a man, but of one in a low state; not appearing in splendour. His whole life was a life of poverty and suffering. But the lowest step was his dying the death of the cross, the death of a malefactor and a slave; exposed to public hatred and scorn. The exaltation was of Christ's human nature, in union with the Divine. At the name of Jesus, not the mere sound of the word, but the authority of Jesus, all should pay solemn homage. It is to the glory of God the Father, to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; for it is his will, that all men should honour the Son as they honour the Father, Joh 5:23. Here we see such motives to self-denying love as nothing else can supply. Do we thus love and obey the Son of God?
LWINSOR © 2017
BIBLICAL, and/or other references marked BOLDLY IN COLOURS
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