Walking Before God
What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ in this world? How should our daily life, as disciples of Jesus Christ, take place in the family, the church, at work, or at school? What duties do we have before God and other people?
Our life, as the children of God and the disciples of Jesus Christ, begins with a new birth from water and the Spirit. It is also called in the Bible a birth from God. Without this birth, it is impossible to see the Kingdom of God, or enter into it. Without this birth, it is impossible to have a real life as a disciple of Jesus Christ, and communion or fellowship with God. The new birth takes place when we truly and sincere repent before God in our sins, believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, who died for our sins and rose from the dead, and confess Jesus Christ as our Lord.
John 3:3 "Jesus answered him, “Most certainly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can’t see the Kingdom of God"
John 3:5 "Jesus answered, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can’t enter into the Kingdom of God!"
Acts 2:38 "Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit"
Acts 16:31 "They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household"
Rom 10:9-10 "That if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation"
The life of the disciples of Jesus Christ is not just the following of good rules or the subordination to the religion of prohibitions. The essence of this life is communion with God, right relationship with Him and constant walking before Him. That is, the life in constant awareness of God's presence with us. It's more than just believing in God, that He is there somewhere. It is constant trust in God, His words, and loyal devotion to Him in all of our life circumstances. This is what characterized the life of those people who are called righteous in the Bible. Let's read about two of them - Enoch and Noah.
Gen.5:22-24 "Enoch walked with God after he became the father of Methuselah three hundred years, and became the father of sons and daughters. All the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him"
Gen.6:8-9 "But Noah found favor in LORD’s eyes. This is the history of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God"
What characterized the walk of Enoch and Noah before God? That they were righteous and without blemish before God. Why were they righteous and blameless before God? Because they believed in God, and what's more, they believed God, they believed His words!
Heb.11:5-7 "By faith, Enoch was taken away, so that he wouldn’t see death, and he was not found, because God translated him. For he has had testimony given to him that before his translation he had been well pleasing to God. Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. By faith, Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house, through which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith"
So, to be a real disciple of Jesus Christ means to walk before God righteously and without blemish, to live by faith, to trust in God and to be faithful to Him always and in everything.
Heb.10:38 "But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him"
Total Devotion to Jesus Christ
To be a disciple of Jesus Christ, one must love Jesus Christ more than everything and anyone in his life, even more than his own life, and be willing to follow Jesus always and everywhere, even to the point of death.
Matt.10:37-39 "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me isn’t worthy of me. He who doesn’t take his cross and follow after me, isn’t worthy of me. He who seeks his life will lose it; and he who loses his life for my sake will find it"
Matt.16:24-25 "Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it"
Luke 9:23-24 "He said to all, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever will lose his life for my sake, the same will save it"
Luke 14:25-27 "Now great multitudes were going with him. He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me, and doesn’t disregard his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he can’t be my disciple. Whoever doesn’t bear his own cross, and come after me, can’t be my disciple"
Rejecting yourself, taking up and carrying your cross, and following Jesus Christ doesn't mean only readiness to die for Jesus Christ, and to give up your life for Him, if necessary, in the future. To take up your cross and bear it, and to lose your life and your soul for the sake of Jesus Christ also means to die for yourself every day. It means to die for your desires that are displeasing to God. It means taming and enslaving your body in everyday life. It means killing your fleshly lusts and passions in order to live for God. Let's look at some Scripture passages, proving it.
1Cor.9:27 "But I beat my body and bring it into submission, lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected"
1Cor.15:31 "I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily"
Gal.5:24 "Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts"
Col.3:5 "Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry"
Following Jesus Christ means, first, listening to the teaching of Jesus Christ and obeying it. It means to observe all that Jesus had commanded us to do.
Mt.28:19-20 "Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen"
Secondly, following Jesus Christ means imitating Jesus Christ in our daily life, behavior, and attitude towards God and other people.
John 12:26 "If anyone serves me, let him follow me. Where I am, there will my servant also be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him"
John 13:14-15 "If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you"
1Cor.11:1 "Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ"
Thirdly, to follow Jesus Christ is to listen to the guidance, the teaching, and the instruction of Jesus Christ, through the voice of the Holy Spirit in our life, and various circumstances of our life. It means to seek the fulfillment of the will of God and the will of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives.
John 10:27 "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me"
Acts 9:6 "And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord [said] unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do" (KJV)
To be the disciples of Jesus Christ, we must give up everything in our lives. We must break the emotional connection with all our things and achievements, break off all attachment to them, and be ready to lose everything for the sake of Jesus Christ.
Luke 14:33 "So therefore whoever of you who doesn’t renounce all that he has, he can’t be my disciple"
Phil.3:7-8 "However, what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ. Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ"
Heb.10:34 "For you both had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an enduring one in the heavens"
Abiding in Jesus Christ
To be a real disciple of Jesus Christ one also needs to remain or to abide constantly in Jesus Christ, as a grape branch remains in the vine. Without abiding in Jesus Christ, the fruitful life of the disciple of Christ is impossible. We abide in Jesus Christ, when we abide in the Word of God (the Word of Jesus Christ, the teachings of the Apostles), when we have fellowship and breaking of bread with other true believers in Christ, and when we pray constantly.
John.15:4-6 "Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned"
John 8:31-32 "Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed him, “If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free"
Acts 2:42 "They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer"
What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ in this world? How should our daily life, as disciples of Jesus Christ, take place in the family, the church, at work, or at school? What duties do we have before God and other people?
Our life, as the children of God and the disciples of Jesus Christ, begins with a new birth from water and the Spirit. It is also called in the Bible a birth from God. Without this birth, it is impossible to see the Kingdom of God, or enter into it. Without this birth, it is impossible to have a real life as a disciple of Jesus Christ, and communion or fellowship with God. The new birth takes place when we truly and sincere repent before God in our sins, believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, who died for our sins and rose from the dead, and confess Jesus Christ as our Lord.
John 3:3 "Jesus answered him, “Most certainly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can’t see the Kingdom of God"
John 3:5 "Jesus answered, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can’t enter into the Kingdom of God!"
Acts 2:38 "Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit"
Acts 16:31 "They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household"
Rom 10:9-10 "That if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation"
The life of the disciples of Jesus Christ is not just the following of good rules or the subordination to the religion of prohibitions. The essence of this life is communion with God, right relationship with Him and constant walking before Him. That is, the life in constant awareness of God's presence with us. It's more than just believing in God, that He is there somewhere. It is constant trust in God, His words, and loyal devotion to Him in all of our life circumstances. This is what characterized the life of those people who are called righteous in the Bible. Let's read about two of them - Enoch and Noah.
Gen.5:22-24 "Enoch walked with God after he became the father of Methuselah three hundred years, and became the father of sons and daughters. All the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him"
Gen.6:8-9 "But Noah found favor in LORD’s eyes. This is the history of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God"
What characterized the walk of Enoch and Noah before God? That they were righteous and without blemish before God. Why were they righteous and blameless before God? Because they believed in God, and what's more, they believed God, they believed His words!
Heb.11:5-7 "By faith, Enoch was taken away, so that he wouldn’t see death, and he was not found, because God translated him. For he has had testimony given to him that before his translation he had been well pleasing to God. Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. By faith, Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house, through which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith"
So, to be a real disciple of Jesus Christ means to walk before God righteously and without blemish, to live by faith, to trust in God and to be faithful to Him always and in everything.
Heb.10:38 "But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him"
Total Devotion to Jesus Christ
To be a disciple of Jesus Christ, one must love Jesus Christ more than everything and anyone in his life, even more than his own life, and be willing to follow Jesus always and everywhere, even to the point of death.
Matt.10:37-39 "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me isn’t worthy of me. He who doesn’t take his cross and follow after me, isn’t worthy of me. He who seeks his life will lose it; and he who loses his life for my sake will find it"
Matt.16:24-25 "Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it"
Luke 9:23-24 "He said to all, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever will lose his life for my sake, the same will save it"
Luke 14:25-27 "Now great multitudes were going with him. He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me, and doesn’t disregard his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he can’t be my disciple. Whoever doesn’t bear his own cross, and come after me, can’t be my disciple"
Rejecting yourself, taking up and carrying your cross, and following Jesus Christ doesn't mean only readiness to die for Jesus Christ, and to give up your life for Him, if necessary, in the future. To take up your cross and bear it, and to lose your life and your soul for the sake of Jesus Christ also means to die for yourself every day. It means to die for your desires that are displeasing to God. It means taming and enslaving your body in everyday life. It means killing your fleshly lusts and passions in order to live for God. Let's look at some Scripture passages, proving it.
1Cor.9:27 "But I beat my body and bring it into submission, lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected"
1Cor.15:31 "I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily"
Gal.5:24 "Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts"
Col.3:5 "Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry"
Following Jesus Christ means, first, listening to the teaching of Jesus Christ and obeying it. It means to observe all that Jesus had commanded us to do.
Mt.28:19-20 "Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen"
Secondly, following Jesus Christ means imitating Jesus Christ in our daily life, behavior, and attitude towards God and other people.
John 12:26 "If anyone serves me, let him follow me. Where I am, there will my servant also be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him"
John 13:14-15 "If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you"
1Cor.11:1 "Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ"
Thirdly, to follow Jesus Christ is to listen to the guidance, the teaching, and the instruction of Jesus Christ, through the voice of the Holy Spirit in our life, and various circumstances of our life. It means to seek the fulfillment of the will of God and the will of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives.
John 10:27 "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me"
Acts 9:6 "And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord [said] unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do" (KJV)
To be the disciples of Jesus Christ, we must give up everything in our lives. We must break the emotional connection with all our things and achievements, break off all attachment to them, and be ready to lose everything for the sake of Jesus Christ.
Luke 14:33 "So therefore whoever of you who doesn’t renounce all that he has, he can’t be my disciple"
Phil.3:7-8 "However, what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ. Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ"
Heb.10:34 "For you both had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an enduring one in the heavens"
Abiding in Jesus Christ
To be a real disciple of Jesus Christ one also needs to remain or to abide constantly in Jesus Christ, as a grape branch remains in the vine. Without abiding in Jesus Christ, the fruitful life of the disciple of Christ is impossible. We abide in Jesus Christ, when we abide in the Word of God (the Word of Jesus Christ, the teachings of the Apostles), when we have fellowship and breaking of bread with other true believers in Christ, and when we pray constantly.
John.15:4-6 "Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned"
John 8:31-32 "Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed him, “If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free"
Acts 2:42 "They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer"
