Living Worthy Part 2

Philippians 2:1: If there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,

Paul has written to us in the book of Philippians giving us direction and telling us of the ONE thing we are supposed to do: Let your conduct be worthy of the Gospel of Christ. We are instructed in this book to live worthy of the Gospel because that is what God calls each one of us to do. The goal is that our living would be consistent with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We have a divine certainty based on what God has done. In order for us to live in a way that our conduct is worthy of the Gospel, we must remember what we have in Christ and how it impacts us every day. Because of our relationship with Jesus Christ we have comforts. We have:

• Comfort in Christ. We receive comfort from Christ and then in turn share that comfort with other people. God ministers to our souls simply because we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It helps us in suffering, it helps us when we have decisions to make, it helps us in conflict

• Comfort of Love. We receive comfort from love not only from Jesus, but also from the people of God as well. This comfort is part of the body of Christ and is received from each other.

• Comfort of the Spirit in the body of Christ as it works in the lives of people. This gift has a look of unity. We can look around the body of the church and see that God is using the Holy Spirit to change us, mold us and make us more like Jesus Christ.

• Comfort of affection and compassion. We share the tenderness we receive from Christ with each other. This deep affection and compassion causes us to show extreme mercy towards other people. Our natural reaction when someone is suffering comes from deep within. Because of Christ we have a deep- seeded compassion that makes us want to help others.

Jesus makes the kind of living that Paul is talking about possible. Jesus makes it possible for us to live our lives worthy of the Gospel. Are you living your life worthy of the Gospel? I encourage you to ask yourself the following questions and give them some thought:

1. Do you recognize what you have in Christ? Do you recognize the comforts of Christ, the comforts of love, the comfort of the Spirit, and the comfort of affection and compassion? These are the realities of living with Christ as our personal savior. This should motivate us!

2. Are you Gospel-centered in your thinking? Do you dwell on Christ? Remembering and thinking about the comforts He gives us is what motivates us then to do the other things that are required to live worthy of the Gospel. We have to preach the Gospel to ourselves daily. We need reminders. If you want to do that, ask yourself: What has Christ done for me? What is He doing for me now? And because of those things, how does that motivate me to live differently?

3. What motivates the way that I live? Is it the Gospel or do I let other things get in the way and distract me? If I am never thinking about the Gospel and not continually looking for its blessings and encouragements, it becomes too hard to live in the way we are called to. Satan desires nothing more than to distract us from the truth of the Gospel.

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s you start off another week, I encourage you to take some time to remember the Gospel in your life and how it affects the way you live. I encourage you to bask in the comforts and the realities that the Gospel has given you and allow yourself to be motivated BY the Gospel so that you can live consistently WITH it.