*** NOTE: PLEASE READ PART 1 FIRST***
How Do We Live Righteously According To The Bible?
God has called us Born-again believers/followers of Jesus Christ to live a life that is right according to His standards and obedient to His Word, the Holy Bible. God has called us not to take the easy, popular, and sinfully pleasurable way out and conform to the culture but to live a holy and righteous life.
Let’s revisit what Jesus said in John 15:19 NLT, “The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.”
Yes, my fellow Christians, we must live in this world (until God calls us home to Heaven), BUT we are not to live like the world and, therefore, not to affirm or indulge in the things that this culture and world offer.
Yes, that includes our daily lifestyle; it should represent Christ well. This includes but is not limited to being very careful of what movies/TV shows we watch, the music we listen to, what we read and absorb into our brains, affecting our thinking, how and on what we spend God’s money, etc.
Again, I’d like to reference Romans 12:2 NLT, which says, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
Jesus knew we couldn’t do this alone; that’s why He loved us enough and left us with the Holy Spirit to help us live a life that pleases and honors Him. And yes, our transformation is a process. When we’re born again, our old sinful ways don’t just instantly go away. It’s a gradual transformation, again, a process. So we might fall a few times and get back up, but that’s not an excuse to keep going on willfully sinning. We should strive to get it right the next time with prayer and the help of the Holy Spirit to empower us.
While we will always have our old sinful nature on this side of Heaven, our goal should be to seek to be less controlled by our flesh (sinful nature) and more controlled by the Holy Spirit that lives within us as Born-again believers in Jesus Christ. I remember an old saying from years ago (not sure who said it first), but it goes something like this: “Two natures beat within my chest. The one is foul (old sinful nature), and the one is blessed (new godly nature). The one I love (new godly nature) and the one I hate (old sinful nature). The one I feed will dominate. As a Born-again believer/follower of Jesus Christ, if you continue to spend your time hanging out with your old unsaved friends/associates, still indulging in the same activities that you asked Jesus to forgive you from, etc, then your old sinful nature is essentially still dominating your life.
Yes, the more you continue to feed your old fleshly, sinful nature with the things it enjoys, the more your old nature will flourish and grow. This is a Carnal Christian, still a babe in Christ, still feeding on milk and not the meat of the Word of God.
When a Born-again believer intentionally chooses to allow the Holy Spirit to lead and guide them in all areas of their life, this will dominate, and they will become spiritually mature in the faith.
This Holy Spirit-led believer is consistent in prayer, Bible reading, studying, Bible application, worship, and praise with thanksgiving to our God, and in time, they will experience significant spiritual growth and maturity in their life.
Again, the Bible says in Romans 12:2, NLT, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
As Born-again believers and followers of Jesus Christ, we should communicate daily with our Lord and fellowship with the one we love, Jesus Christ. It is a known fact that human beings spend more time with whom or with the things that they love most. The more we spend time praying, reading, and applying the Word of God (the Bible) to our lives, worshipping and praising with thanksgiving, the more the Holy Spirit transforms that born-again believer’s mind and life. So, as this gradual transformation takes place, that born-again believer is growing spiritually, desiring to honor the Lord with what they do, say, and think. With divine help from the Holy Spirit, they can do what the Bible says in Philippians 4:8 NLT, “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”
It is CRUCIAL to stay in daily prayer, Bible study, and fellowship with God and to pray for discernment to differentiate the things of God from the influences of Satan. This is how the Holy Spirit-led Born-again believer can rightfully discern when that Pastor or anyone brings in and permits worldly ways and influences into the worship service or anywhere in their life.
The Bible says in 1 John 4:1-6 NLT, “Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here. But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.”
The Bible also states in Matthew 7:15-23 NLT,
Matthew 7:15 (NLT)
“Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves.”
Matthew 7:16 (NLT)
“You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”
Matthew 7:17 (NLT)
“A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit.”
Matthew 7:18 (NLT)
“A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit.”
Matthew 7:19 (NLT)
“So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire.”
Matthew 7:20 (NLT)
“Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.”
Matthew 7:21 (NLT)
“Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.”
Matthew 7:22 (NLT)
“On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’”
Matthew 7:23 (NLT)
“But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’”
https://www.bible.com/search/bible?query=Matthew%207%3A15-23
So, let us be on alert to be mindful of intentionally living a life of righteousness that honors God in every aspect of our lives. In 2 Timothy 3:16 ESV, the Bible says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
My fellow Christians, let’s continue to daily search the Holy Bible and allow God to use His Word and the power of the Holy Spirit to teach, correct, and train us in righteous living so that we may be complete, equipped for every good work as we honor our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Bonus: Living By The Holy Spirit’s Power
Galatians 5:16-25 NLT
Galatians 5:16 (NLT)
“So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.”
Galatians 5:17 (NLT)
“The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.”
Galatians 5:18 (NLT)
“But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.”
Galatians 5:19 (NLT)
“When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures,
Galatians 5:20 (NLT)
idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division,
Galatians 5:21 (NLT)
envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”
Galatians 5:22 (NLT)
“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Galatians 5:23 (NLT)
gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”
Galatians 5:24 (NLT)
“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.”
Galatians 5:25 (NLT)
“Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.”
(https://www.bible.com/search/bible?query=galatians%205%3A16-)
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