Living like it

Eric Jones has been asking some tough questions about discipleship:

If you look like the world, act like the world, and are embraced by the world, then more than likely you belong to the world and not to Christ. You can only serve one master, not two. There is no such thing as a carnal Christian – one who is surrendered to Christ yet lives like the world. If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The way you used to think and act is history; it’s dead and gone.

Are you wrapped up in the trappings of worldly culture? Do you watch what the world watches on TV and at the movies - the things that glorify sin, selfishness, materialism, and chaos? Do you spend your time pursuing wealth in order to gain the riches of this world and enjoy the comforts and pleasures that this world has to offer? Do you talk like the world and engage in coarse joking and gossip? Or, is your mind set on the things of God? . . . . Have you been transformed or are you still conformed to this world?

There is a significant and noticeable difference between those who live for Christ instead of for themselves and for the world. They produce good fruit. They obey God and say no to the lusts of the flesh. They truly have become a new creation and it shows in what they do, what they say, and how they live.

Yes. And of course, none of this is to say that Christians' lives are flawless or that our obedience has already been perfected. Obedience grows in the life of a disciple of Christ. It's a process of transformation that continues throughout our earthly existence as we grow more and more to resemble Christ. So let's not become too carried away with precisely how perfect our obedience, or how thoroughly we live differently from the world. But different we should be.