To Live For Christ

One of the most important issues in my life currently is the discipline of ensuring that Christ is a part of my daily walk. That is, in whatever I do, I do my best to make sure that Christ is involved and His principles are a part of my decision making process. With that said, never will I be perfect and this is true for all the Saints both past and present but my life is best described by the words of Paul in Philippians 1:21: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

Many people love to look at the last part of this verse and the rewards that are awaiting them in Heaven and this is significant and just another reminder of how great our Lord is but we cannot forget about the first part: to live is Christ. What does this mean? It simply means that we declare the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be true. With this announcement, however, we are saying much more than we believe it to be true but that our lives are centered around God’s word: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

To live is Christ has a simple meaning but it’s deep and profound. For example, we are to pursue a relationship with Christ which means, in doing so, we do our best to imitate Christ or to be Christ like. When we think about what we are to do, as Christians, then we are to follow the example of Christ which is explained within the Bible. If we are ever in doubt, there are different things we can do including pray and ask for guidance or open up the Bible and read about what Christ did: “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).

Paul is such a gigantic figure within scripture which is why he is looked to so highly. Paul is one of those figures that, like each of us, had a past before he come to his sainthood which is where the cliché “every sinner has a past just like every saint has a future” and other various says come from. To say the very least, when we are living for Christ then we want to know Him both in and out very much like we do with our partners: “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead” (Philippians 3:10-11).

The older that I have gotten and the more that I have grown in Christ lets me see just how much in love with Christ I am and this is the way it is for each and every Christian. It’s not about being the perfect Christian or having the perfect relationship or comparing our relationship with others because we are all on a different level but without a doubt, when we are living for Christ then we are doing all that we do to glorify Christ. No longer is it important that we have all the credit or that we shine in lights. If that’s what He allows us to do then that’s great but when we strive after Christ then what truly matters is that His message is spread throughout whether it’s a church, a city, a town, a community, a state, a nation, or the world as He becomes the center of who we are: “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2).