GOD’S EXPECTATION OF CHRISTIANS
In my last post, we looked at God’s expectations of humans, which can be
summarized in God’s Word in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, “All
has been heard; the end of the matter is: Fear God [revere and worship Him,
knowing that He is] and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man
[the full, original purpose of his creation, the object of God's providence,
the root of character, the foundation of all happiness, the adjustment to all
inharmonious circumstances and conditions under the sun] and the whole [duty] for every man.
14 For God shall bring every work into
judgment, with every secret thing, whether it is good or evil.
This is God’s expectation of all
humans because God will judge our every action on a Day He has appointed in the
future and the Lord Jesus Christ will sit on the Throne to judge everyone.
Now, for Christians, God also has another expectation, which the Lord
Jesus Christ talks about in Matthew 5:14-16, “You are
the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
15 Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a
peck measure, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.
16 Let your light so shine before men that
they may see your moral excellence and
your praiseworthy, noble, and
good deeds and recognize and
honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in
heaven.”
This is the great expectation
God has of every Christian. You must be a pace setter of righteous living in
every area of your life, whether in church or outside church at work, school,
market, etc.
Everyone must know you
as a Christian, a child of God living a genuine life visible to all. Your speech
must be sound, your thoughts about things of the spirit, your conduct
impeccable so that others would praise, glorify and worship God for your sake.
It is in the light of
this that I want to mention a strange incident I witnessed today on television.
A program was on that is supposed to be a Gospel program. The show started with
a presenter, then a Gospel artiste came on to sing and thereafter the presenter
had an interview with the Gospel artiste.
The presenter asked
several questions and one particular one struck me and made me shocked and sad.
The presenter mentioned that Gospel artistes needed to go out to the secular
world with their music and so they needed to adapt their music to the secular
pattern to gain the listeners of such music into God’s kingdom.
She then mentioned
another Gospel artiste who had worked with a secular artiste on a track and had
a lot of criticisms for this. She now asked this particular artiste on the show
which secular artiste he would love to work with.
The artiste mentioned
that it was right that one needed to pattern his Gospel music like the ones in
the secular world just to gain listeners of such music and he had even done
that in some of the tracks of his album.
He further stated that he
had never given thought before then to the idea of working with a secular
artiste and he went ahead to mention one he would love to work with on a song.
Dear friend, if you look
at the Lord Jesus’ comments in Matthew 5:14-16 and compare with what I witnessed
on television earlier today as narrated above, you will see that indeed, a
number of people who profess Christianity are simply unaware of God’s
expectations of Christians.
Why would a Christian
who is a Gospel artiste want to adapt his Gospel music to the pattern of
worldly music because he wants to gain audience listeners of such music
pattern?
Are Christians to lower
God’s standard to preach the Gospel or to remain as light of the world to lost
souls to be converted by God’s Holy Spirit?
We must note that our
duty as Christians is to share the Gospel via all media according to the
standard of God’s Word in the Holy Bible and not according to the world’s
standard, which is fashioned by satanic influences!!
The work of God’s Holy
Spirit is to convict the persons to which we have preached and the duty of the
persons to which we have preached is to accept or reject the Gospel message
they have heard.
Anyone who claims
Christianity, claims to be preaching the Gospel but compromising in standards
God expects of us according to His Word is living a false life and should
repent immediately.
God has made it clear in
Malachi 3:6a that He does not change. Hebrews 13:8 tells us that the Lord Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Dear friend, God’s
standard cannot change because He is a God of integrity and His integrity is
seen in His Word because He will always do what He has said and nothing else.
When you understand this
fact, then you will also realize that God’s expectation of Christians will
never change and we must always live and act in this expectation through the
power of God’s Holy Spirit as light of Christ to a darkened world of sin.
This way, the unsaved
lost souls would see Christ’s light in us and genuinely repent and return to
Him, their Creator Who loves all humans including them who are in dire need of
Salvation to become God’s children.
May the good Lord bless
you as you heed His Word today, act on it and share with others in Jesus’ Most
Merciful Name, Amen.
Gabriel Ama.
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