What exactly does that mean? I read and hear everywhere that reading your Bible isn't enough, praying isn't enough, going to church isn't enough etc, but that you have live your life every day for Christ. How do you do that? I'm a Christian but I'm still learning and I'm worried that what ever I do it won't be enough because I don't understand the whole "living for Christ" thing.
Very often cause and effect are confused by Christian folk. Praying, Bible study, attending church - these are all
by-products of something else. "Living for Jesus" is an effect, the result, or manifestation, of a cause. It's important to recognize this because trying to produce the effect of living for Christ apart from its proper cause results in a dry, moralistic, and ultimately hypocritical spiritual experience. When one has the source and cause of holy living established in one's life, the "Christian life" happens quite naturally.
So, what is the basis for "living for Christ"? Well, it begins with knowing him. Do you know him? I don't just mean do you know
about him, but do you have a personal relationship with, and experience of, Jesus through the indwelling Holy Spirit (called the "Spirit of Christ" in
Romans 8:9)? Does the Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, convict you daily of sin? (
John 16:8) Does the Holy Spirit teach you God's truth from His word, the Bible? (
John 14:26; John 16:13; 1 Corinthians 2:10-14). Does the Spirit strengthen you in times of temptation and trial? (
Ephesians 3:16; Romans 8:13; Philippians 2:13) Does the Holy Spirit comfort you in seasons of grief and pain? (
2 Corinthians 1:3-4) Does the Spirit produce in you his spiritual Fruit? (
Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesians 5:9; 2 Corinthians 3:18) In the midst of experiencing these things, you will come to know Christ, not just academically as any atheist might do, but personally, directly, in a way that profoundly affects your heart and life.
In knowing Christ, one comes to trust in, and love, him. "O taste and see that the Lord is good" the Bible says (
Psalms 34:8); "the goodness of God leads men to repentance" the apostle Paul wrote to the Roman church (
Romans 2:4); "we love him because he first loved us," the apostle John explained (
1 John 4:19). When one knows Christ, the experience of his goodness, of his mercy, patience, grace, peace, holiness and love, provokes a corresponding trust in, and love for, him, which expands over time, deepening and overflowing from one's life naturally and powerfully.
It turns out, Jesus isn't just our Saviour and Lord, but our very
life. (
Colossians 3:4; Philippians 1:21; John 6:44) All that one is as a child of God, emanates from the life of Christ placed in us in the Person of the Holy Spirit (
Romans 8:9-14). That life is rich with purity, peace, love and power. As it fills one up and overflows from one's life, the natural result is "living for Christ." (
Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:1-3; 2 Corinthians 3:18)
In knowing and loving Christ, one comes to enjoy Him. Do you enjoy Christ?
Philippians 3:7-8
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
Clearly, Paul thought Christ was a greater treasure than all other things life could offer. Why? Had he found Jesus to be a bitter, hard, frightening taskmaster? Obviously not. Paul's experience of Christ was so excellent he was willing even to die in service to him (which, eventually, he did). But this is how "living (and dying) for Christ" works: we love and enjoy him so deeply, so fully, we will yield up our entire lives for Christ's sake. No other motive for Christian living is acceptable to God (
Matthew 22:36-38; 1 Corinthians 13:1-3) and no other motive sufficiently powerful to consistently and persistently fuel being a "living sacrifice to God." (
Romans 12:1)
Ephesians 3:14-19
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
You can bet when you are filled with all the fullness of God that your life reflects this fact. Your praise of God and your obedience to Him will flow easily and enthusiastically from such filling. This happens with anything we greatly enjoy, doesn't it? The man who enjoys his wife intensely speaks often and happily of her; the golfer who thrills at the joy he takes in golfing won't shut up about it; the grandmother who finds enormous fulfillment and delight in her grandchildren goes on and on about them every chance she gets, and so on. Those who delight in God, who are powerfully satisfied and gratified by their experience of Christ, are those who most naturally, and joyfully, and constantly sing his praises and order their lives around him.
Too often, though, people try to "live for Christ" in the absence of all of the things Scripture says ought to be the ground out of which their Christian living arises. Such living is onerous, burdensome, empty religious form, that sooner or later, is shrugged off entirely or corrupted with sinful hypocrisy.
Psalm 16:11
11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Here is the heart of the Christian life: fullness of joy and eternal pleasure in God. Out of this experience of God, real "living for Christ" occurs.
The ultimate aim of enjoying God is, as I've already indicated, our glorification of Him.
1 Corinthians 10:31
31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Our holy living is not an end in itself but just the means to this ultimate end. We "see God" (
Hebrews 12:14) and enjoy Him so that we might properly glorify Him in word and deed. This is the way to "living for Christ." Is it the way you're living?
