Moving forward from my previous blog, let's start looking at ways the Bible shows us how to be good. In the coming months, I can help you in your walk with Jesus by showing you what is good and how to work those things into your life. I can make life a little easier for you by doing this. However, God wants you to flesh out these things on your own as you read and study your Bible everyday. However, I can get you off to a good running start. That's what God has called me to do. That's my spiritual gift of the Holy Spirit, which is to teach you and spread the gospel. Now, having said that let's dive right in.
Okay, having been "born again" and adopted into the kingdom of God, having been adopted by God into His family, we do not live as the rest of the world lives. We do not do what everyone else does. As God's children, the Church, we do not belong just to ourselves anymore. We belong to Jesus.
Romans 1:6 NIV
[6] And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
Romans 14:7-8 NIV
[7] For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. [8] If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:20a NIV
[20] We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us...
So, not only are we "Christ's ambassadors" or representatives on this Earth, we BELONG to our Lord Jesus Christ.
So in this blog, we'll find a few ways of doing good to represent Jesus well in our lives, since we belong to Him.
One way to be good is to honor God with our physical body.
Our physical body is "the temple of the Holy Spirit" who lives inside us. So God wants us to protect our bodies. One way to be good is to not do anything with our bodies that is sin, such as sexual immorality or putting bad stuff in our bodies such as addictive substances or contaminants. We do not use any part of our physical bodies to sin with. This includes our minds too or our spirit too.
We don't use any part of our body or mind to sin with since we belong to Jesus now.
1 Corinthians 6:12-20 NIV
[12] “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. [13] You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. [14] By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. [15] Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! [16] Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” [17] But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. [18] Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.
[19] Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; [20] you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
Romans 6:1-10 NIV
[1] What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? [2] By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? [3] Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? [4] We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. [5] For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. [6] For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— [7] because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. [8] Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. [9] For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. [10] The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
Romans 6:11-14 NIV
[11] In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. [12] Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. [13] Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. [14] For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Why do we want to be good with our bodies and our minds? Because our bodies and minds are where the Holy Spirit lives and out of respect or reverence for God.
2 Corinthians 7:1 NIV
[1] Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
So, one way to be good is to never use our body or mind to sin with. Never contaminate our body with physical substances or use any part of our body to sin with, or contaminate our mind with bad external influences that cause us to sin.
So let's use our bodies and minds for good since we represent Jesus and belong to Him now. Also, we know that God uses us so others can be saved too.
Love you all dear readers,
Jeffrey Post
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