One Lord
While the term "Christian" brings to mind a lot of different things for different people, the New Testament, the earliest record of Christianity, tells us that the name "Christian" was given to "disicples" of Jesus in the city of Antioch, about fifteen years after Jesus' resurrection (Acts 11:26). But what is a disciple, or we could say, follower? Consider how the New Testament describes followes of Jesus by considering life through the lens of what we call "Four Essentials".
Who or what are you serving?
While all of us like to think of ourselves as 'free', everyone is serving someone or something. We were actually created to serve something outside of ourselves. For some it's pleasure. For others, it may be power. Still others may crave acceptance. Whatever it might be, all of us are ruled by various desires, relationships, or false ideas about ourselves and the world around us. But we were made for only one Lord.We believe that the Scriptures come back to four truths, or four essentials, when they talk about living life as God intended. The first of these essentials points us to the fact that we were created to serve God through Jesus Christ.
The writers of the New Testament often introduced themselves in their letters as servants of Jesus Christ (Romans 1:1; James 1:1; II Peter 1:1; Jude 1). A servant is someone who wants to "find out what pleases" (Ephesians 5:10) the one they serve and make that their "goal" (II Corinthians 5:9). Being a follower of Jesus Christ means looking and listening to him in all things. It means living a ‘Christ-centered' life. Living as a servant of Jesus is directly related to the identity of Jesus. Jesus is our "one lord" (I Corinthians 8:6; Ephesians 4:5). Living on purpose for Christ means that we will always be looking back to his cross. Paul confirms this when he writes, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20) Can you say along with Paul, "I want to know Christ" (Philippians 3:10)?We would love to tell you more about what it means to live life as God intended as a follower of Jesus Christ. Click the "contact us" link above to reach us or join us this Sunday.
