an authentic walk 30mar2014

1 Thessalonians 5:12-18

©Good News Community Fellowship; Marikina City, Philippines

Those who are in Christ has made a radical, transformed authentic walk that exposes a superficial, unchanged life.


A genuine walk with God, our genuine Christian walk will preach louder to the unsaved, unchurched than anything we can ever verbally speak.


Do we have an authentic walk with Christ? There is a big difference between authentic walk and a superficial walk with Christ. The Bible teaches us that a real Christian will have a certain character traits that will differ from the non-Christian.


Walking an authentic Christian walk is not a request but a requirement.


When Christ set up His church, He gifted the Church with leaders. This passage is directly talking to the church about their relationship to their leaders as well as to live authentic Christian life.


Three exhortations to the Church regarding their proper attitudes toward their leaders:

a) They are to respect them and appreciate them because of their work.


b) They are to esteem, value, and respect them for their work’s sake. Hold them in highest regard because of the nature of their responsibility before God.


Not just some respect, but the highest respect is due to these leaders, and it is to come from an attitude of love for them. Why? Because they are always right? No! Because of their work! Because of their calling! Because of who called them.


c) They are to live in peace with each other. The idea here is to maintain peace because peaceful condition existed in the Thessalonian church but they had to continue to live in peace.


Authentic Christian lives a life with a highest regard to their leaders.


a) The idle need to be warned. Those who neglect their duties need to be stirred up to action.


b) The timid or the fainthearted people tend to become discouraged and despondent more easily than most. They need cheering up, stimulation to press on, and extra help to live the Christian life.


c) The weak need help. They have not yet learned to lean upon the Lord as much as they should for their spiritual needs. Until they do they need strong support from other believers.


d) Be patient with everyone. God is not finished yet with each one of us. God is still working patiently (long suffering) with us and so we must be patient as well.


e) Retaliation is not an option for a Christian. Even if the wrong done to him springs from evil intent, the offended one never has the right to repay wrong with wrong. One’s response should be to show kindness in such instances.


f) It is not enough to abstain from evil; one is also to do positive good – to be kind to each other.


Authentic Christian life lives peaceably and does not seek to get even.


Check your attitude concerning the following areas:

a) Be joyful always. Authentic Christian is joyful all the time.


Be joyful – some of the time.

Be joyful – when things are going great.

Be joyful – only on payday or when we have money.

Be joyful – only on Sundays.

No! Be joyful always.


New Testament Christianity is permeated with the spirit of holy joy, and there is no reason why 21st Christianity should not have the same joyfulness.


2) Pray continually. Authentic Christian prays continually – both in crisis and success moments.


It is not in the moving of our lips but in the elevation of our hearts to God which enables us to pray without ceasing and to be all our days in the spirit of prayer.


Realizing our dependence on God for all that we have and all that we are, realizing His presence with us wherever we may be, and yielding ourselves continually to Him for the doing of His will.


Where there is such an inward state, it will find outward expression in verbal prayer that it becomes so natural and so continual for us, that the frequency of such prayers becomes habit forming.


c) Give thanks in all circumstances. Authentic Christian always finds something for which to be grateful. Even in difficulties and trials, God is teaching us valuable lessons.


Therefore, such trials are to be welcomed. Knowing God’s sovereignty and providence prompts us to give thanks under all circumstances.


Although, it is often difficult to see the brighter side of a particular trial, but it is our deep conviction that God is over all, and that His hand is in the particular trial we are undergoing.


Then, we cannot but recognize His goodness and make our act of thanksgiving in every circumstance.


What God wants us to have is an authentic walk that will provide a genuine expression of a transformed life done in the power of the Holy Spirit.


Not a reformation but a true transformation that effect change from inside out, to be seen in our authentic Christian walk. Not superficially and in hypocrisy but a genuine life that exhibits the Christ-like life.


an authentic walk 30mar2014

Spiritual