Living for Others.

"I have brought Gentiles to God by my message and by the way I lived before them." Rom 15:18(b)

The longer I have been a Christian, I realise more and more the importance of not living this life of faith purely for myself. We are called to be light and the only way we do this is to live our faith on the behalf of others. We are an example of a different choice of lifestyle in the world today.

Jesus summed up all the commandments into two specific ones – simply love God, love others. We certainly need the first one to fulfil the second one. Love is the more excellent way and living our lives as a Godly example to glorify God and to bring others to salvation is walking in love and not self.

The Apostle Paul was focused on living for others, becoming all things to all, so that he could have the chance to win some to Christ. There is so much at a stake. We are in a spiritual war for the souls of men and the "prince of the air" is certainly on overtime, appealing to the world through the emotions of lust and love for oneself. The only way to combat that is to show to people a love that is pure, a love that doesn't put self first, a love that is not condemning (even though we may not condone the lifestyle of today's modern living), but a love that will reach out to others in their pain.

The Apostle Paul addresses some of the issues of his day in Romans 14 & 15 regarding foods and different days of worship. How it is that we can so tend to get caught up on the little things, majoring over the minor?

"May God who give this patience and encouragement help you live in complete harmony with each other – each with the attitude of Christ Jesus toward the other." (Rom 15:5)

Christ's attitude towards others is a very hard yet outstanding way to follow. The religious leaders were affronted at the company he kept but as He said, he came to heal the sinners not those who already thought of themselves as well. Even though Jesus hung out with this crowd, He too showed another way and in the process many came to believe on Him and follow in His footsteps. He loved them to their destiny (a quote I heard the other day) which is so true. God knows exactly where we are today and knows exactly how, by receiving His love, we can changed to be more like Jesus. What an incredible Holy God, not scared to pull us out of the muck and mire of sin.

May God enable us to love others and not be so self-centred and may we have the attitude as we go through each day to watch our behaviour for His glory, knowing that others are watching us. As Joyce Meyer says, it is no good for us to have all the different versions of the bible to read, along with all Christian books and literature and maybe even a "fish" sticker on the back of our car, yet not work the biblical principles out in our lives. This Christian walk is to be lived out in front of others to show the glory of God and His power at work in our lives. Exactly why Jesus said He is THE WAY! We too can be the way for others to follow.