Here’s a wonderful thought, everyone who belongs to Jesus will one day be given a new body that will endure forever in a perfect place called heaven. And now, the rest of the story…
On the topic of keeping ourselves pure… At the risk of sounding like a broken record…(wait, does anyone say that anymore? Records have been extinct for years). Anyway, the same message keeps repeating: we must remain pure (free from sin) as Christians. So verse 9 says that we don’t “make a practice of sinning” where the rest of the text seems to imply that we stop altogether. In reality I think we begin the process of stopping sin when we accept Christ and become less and less sinful as we grow. I know that this particular passage seems to imply that we stop altogether and never sin again… and I’m not saying it isn’t possible, just not common.
Fellowship with other believers is high priority for Christians. I suppose that’s because Christianity is really all about relationship. Relationship with God, and with others. God lives in community, not in isolation. Man was created to commune with God, not simply to serve as a workforce. So, if we want to truly live out our Christianity, we must learn to get along with other Christians. It is unthinkable that Christians will be at odds with one another, because there isn’t any disharmony in heaven.
Perhaps one of the hardest things to learn is that true faith in Christ is the forgiveness of others, and working alongside others with compassion and patience. Maybe we accomplish great tasks, maybe not. Either way, it’s the way we behave on the journey that’s important.
Final thought: verse 16 reminds us that Christ demonstrated His love for us by sacrificing Himself. We demonstrate our love for Christ by sacrificing ourselves for others.
How have your sacrificed yourself lately?
In Christ,
PR