I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
Living (doing) right in the sight of God requires accountable relationships who are qualified. Without accountability, even the most season saints can stumble and find a disconnect between our heart desires and our actions (Romans 7:19). No one should ever think that you are too grown-up or too spiritually mature to ask the Father for His help. What will sustain us when trouble comes is our LORD’s helping response to our humble cry (Psalms 34:17). Augustine once said, “O Lord, everything good in me is due to you, but the rest is all my fault.” If we start with a humble and righteous heart, it can overflow into righteous actions. In other words, as our redeemed hearts cause us to practice righteousness, the fruit of that will be righteous living.
Our greatest accountable relationship is to Christ Jesus and this relationship will guide us in growing in favor with God and men. However, without this shepherding relationship with Christ, we all can transgress into the hypocrisy of preaching one way and living another. When we give in to the pressures of the crowd or peers and not our heart’s convictions we can unknowingly damage our witness to the world causing others to be carried away with the same hypocrisy. Living right must always be in response to the Father’s all-seeing eyes. Character is living life knowing that the Father is watching. Additionally, without accountability to Christ, we can get so high minded thinking we have arrived and forget that the same blood that saved you is the same blood that is keeping you. We are not to lead or invite people to be like us and to think like us according to the flesh, but to invite them into the same redeeming relationship with Christ that saved our wretched souls as His ambassadors. To lead people into a religious system and its practices rather than to Christ can frustrate their way by holding them to double standard. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life whose precious blood can make all of us clean inside, and restore us to live our best life. We must not frustrate the gospel of Jesus Christ!
On a final note, our associations, those we connect and agree with can reveal what we believe is important in life. We have witnessed recently how once again the increase of social, cultural, and political identities have fractured the Christian community’s witness, but in Christ, we have a greater identity. Our God is a holy and righteous God and we are called to be like Him. To be Christian is to be more than black, white, brown, republican, democrat, more than a branch of service, lodge, fraternity, or sorority because Christ is added into who we are. He now complements, completes, and seasons our lives. It is His powerful presence that is the glue that can forever unite us. He is inseparable from us. Our greatest association must be to Christ Jesus to live right in the sight of our God!
Because He lives,
Pastor Reggie Sheppard