Christian living is having the word of God applied to our lives, including the commandments of God in the Old Testament and the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament. In every aspect of our life, we conduct ourselves according to the teachings of the Holy Bible; the will of God. Whether it’s our thoughts, deeds, affection in love for other people, or our passion/desires to do things. Then we will truly be disciples of the Lord.

There’re many so-called Christians today. But if we examine their lives, what they do everyday is definitely different from the teachings of the Holy Bible. There’re people who lie and cheat other people everyday; people who commit sexual immorality but call themselves Christians. Such Christians don’t commit their lives to Christian living.

There’re also many people who don’t believe in Christ. They’re good people. They do a lot to help others, they’re full or compassion, and very morally principled. Though they are good people, but because they don’t have faith in Jesus Christ, we can’t say they live according to Christian living principles. Christian living is more than just a disciplined way of life; it is obeying and doing the will of God.

Why do we want to do the will of God?

1. Because the grace of Christ has come into our lives. We were once sinners; people alienated from God. We lived life according to the flesh, and the end of that life is of course the judgement of God. But because Christ has delivered us from all this evil, bestowing grace upon all of us; His blood washing ya of our sins, we are a people holy unto the Lord. Since this is so, we have to conduct our lives according to Holy living whose life is eternal life in heaven.

Christian living begins with faith in God. If we don’t have faith and don’t believe in God; the one true God who is the Creator or that Jesus is that God or that He is our Saviour, then we probably don’t conduct our lives according to the teachings of the Holy Bible and won’t be conducting our lives according to Christian living principles.

Deut 6:4-6
The descendants of Abraham - the Israelites - were brought out by Moses from Egypt into the promised land, having been slaves for 400 years. The journey towards the promised land took 40 years. In the 40 years, Moses was told to read the commands to the Israelites. He reminded them that the Lord God is one. If we know this, then we have to love the Lord God with all our hearts, soul and strength. So the Israelites were known as a nation of God’s people only supposed to worship the one true God. Unfortunately in the biblical history of the Israelite nation, they also worshipped Baal. When Moses was up in the mountain for 40 days and nights, the Israelites were impatient and told Aaron to make a golden calf that they referred to as Baal. 30-40 years after coming out of Egypt, the Bible describes that they joined themselves to Baal. Why were they so ready to worship Baal? Because the pagan practices of worshipping Baal involved immoral practices. The priestesses were actually temple prostitutes. When people go and worship, they commit sexual immorality. So even though they knew there was one true God that was the Creator, they still worshipped other gods. While God’s blessing was with them through history, His wrath also came upon them, because they didn’t totally obey the commandments of God to love Him with all our hearts, strength and mind.

Today the God the Israelites worship is the God we worship too - the Creator, the one true God.

Mark 12:32-34
Jesus is God incarnate. He was in the flesh for 33 years to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom. Grace and truth also came with Him and Jesus Christ made God known to the people - the love, almighty power, omniscience, omnipresence, and righteous judgement of God. All this was manifested by the Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh. In the verses, a scribe came to ask Jesus Christ which the greatest commandment was. Jesus Christ answered by quoting Deut 6 which was read earlier.

Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” So the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” But after that no one dared question Him.

This is the faith of Christians who believe in the one true God, the Creator. All things were created by Him.

Heb 11:3
God created the world by His word. He said, “Let there be light/land/sea creatures/birds of the air.” And there was light/land/sea creatures/birds of the air. Man was created too.

This is the creation of God but we need to have faith. We can’t go back to history to see. Today man’s inventions are great. We can invent new things but it needed to come from other things. A car is made from iron plates. It needs a source of materials. The pulpit is made of wood which comes from trees. Basic materials are needed. But before there was anything, God created everything. It can be hard to explain. God created man too. And then people ask who created God. It’s hard to explain right? He’s self-existent. He calls Himself “I AM”. He’s the first and the last. It’s hard to understand but we need faith to accept. Even the first verse of the Bible needs faith in itself. Those with faith will say ‘amen’. Those without faith will say ‘how can’ and cannot find an answer to it. For us, we believe ‘God can’ and so believe in creation. We believe He’s the Creator while we are created beings. That’s why we have to serve Him and most importantly, worship Him.

Psa 95:6-8
Why must we worship and bow down to God? Because “He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand.” Today, if you will hear His voice: “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, As in the day of trial in the wilderness”

Many a times they questioned the authority and good intention of the Lord. That’s why the psalmist tells us not to harden our hearts but come and worship this God, because He is our Maker. That’s why we come to church to worship Him. We know everything we have is given to us by God. And because of faith in Him, we obey His commandments. His commandments is for our good also. At the end we receive eternal life, that’s why we keep the commandments of God and come to church to worship Him.

We can’t have Christian living if we don’t worship God in the church. “I can worship God at home! I don’t belong to any congregation. I have nothing to do with the church!” is not Christianly behaviour.

During the apostolic times, the disciples devoted themselves to spreading the gospel, and gathering to breaking bread together daily.

Why do we want to do the will of God?

1. Because we believe Jesus is Lord and Christ
   Acts 2:36
   Jesus Christ died, was hurried and on the third day, resurrected. He appeared to the disciples and at one time appeared to 500 people at once. All these, were witnesses to His resurrection. Because of this, they - especially the apostles - went around testifying. Here Peter testified of this (v32). In these verses, Peter spoke to the Jews in Jerusalem, some of which wanted Christ crucified. The Roman authorities had acceded to their request. But Jesus resurrected on the third day. On the 40th day He ascended into heaven with people witnessing it. When the Holy Spirit came upon them, the disciples went to Jerusalem to proclaim Jesus is both Lord and Christ. This was actually what the angel proclaimed when Jesus was born.

Luke 2:10-11
Jesus was born as a babe to virgin Mary in Bethlehem. The shepherds were in the field, so it should’ve have been winter. Likely it was around April. The angel of the Lord appeared to these shepherds. “Don’t be afraid I bring you great tidings. Born to you this day in the city of David is the Saviour, Christ the Lord.” Christ means ‘anointed one’. In Hebrew, it’s ‘Messiah’. ‘Christ’ is the Greek word.

Acts 2
When Peter proclaimed the resurrection of Jesus, he proclaimed He was the Christ. When some people heard this, they were cut to the heart and got baptised. Around 3000 souls were baptised. That began the church; there was no building then. These Christian Jews still worshipped God. How? v42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. v44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common v46-47 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

They assembled together daily because they believed Jesus was Lord and Christ. Likewise our faith is the same - we believe Jesus is Lord and Christ, the only Saviour.

1 Cor 8:5-6
Today we are alive because God gives us life. Why He allows us to live is to serve, know and love Him.

Acts 4:12
There’s no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. If we believe in Jesus Christ and accept Him as our Saviour, we’ll repent and be forgiven of sins. We’ll be made righteous by grace. If they lead a life of obedience in Christ Jesus, they’ll receive everlasting life in heaven.

Believers in Christ obey the teachings of God.

Rev 14:12
Saints are holy believers. More than that, saints keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Just professing Jesus is our Saviour isn’t enough, one must also keep the commandments of God.

“Here is the patience of the saints”
Why is patience needed? Because keeping the commandments of God is not one-off but over a period of time - whether through success or through troubles. This is Christian living.

When Jesus Christ was preaching, many followed Him, but not all were believers. Not all who believed were saints either. That’s why Jesus said, “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’ but not keep My commandments?” There’re millions of Christians today but not all keep His commandments.

To keep the word of God to the end, one must have a genuine faith and be convicted Jesus has saved Him.

In northeast Taiwan, there’re many churches that are so close together, one congregation can be heard singing by another. East Taiwan is fraught with natural calamities - earthquakes, typhoons, etc. But the believers remained faithful and trusted God.

Before Taiwan achieved independence, they were under the Japanese who ruled Taiwan for 50 years. When the Japanese surrendered in WW2, anarchy happened. Everyone tried to take the law into their own hands. Our believers remained faithful but everyone around them were pagans and didn’t like their service keeping.

After the service, they’d bring out our members in groups of 5 or 10 and take hard sticks to beat them up. This was told to the speaker by old members there who were young people then. They said, “We could retaliate anytime because we’re as strong as them. But because we believe in Christ and told to love our enemies, we didn’t retaliate.” They were truly patient (cf. Rev 14:12) and got beaten up.

One day they decided to kill our members, because no matter how they tried to beat them, services continued. They weren’t happy and decided to kill. That was the night an angel appeared to the church congregation and by the grace of God protected them. Led by the angel, they were brought to the mountain side. One side was the Pacific Ocean, the other a rocky hill. When they walked, the rocks slid, but the angel said, “Follow me. No harm shall come upon you.”

All these were experiences of faith. That’s why the faith passed down to the younger generation continues. They know Jesus is their Saviour who doesn’t only grant them peace in this life but also able to bring them to eternity in heaven.

Before believers in Christ, they were pagans and drank alcohol. They committed sexual immorality, even incest in their drunkenness. There were many fights. But after believing, the power of the Lord through the Holy Spirit changed them to be godly people, and they led a life very different from the rest.

Why do we want to do the will of God?

1. Because Christians believe in the righteous judgement of God
   This will be on the Last Day.
   2 Pet 2:4-11, 3:10-14
   Elder Peter encouraged the believers to have Christian living, because of the righteous judgement of the Lord. The biblical destruction during Noah’s time was cited. Only Noah and his family were saved, the rest were drowned because their thoughts were continually evil. They were wicked people and God had to destroy that.

The biblical destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was also cited. They were burnt by fire from heaven. If you go up to Mount Nebo and look over to the plain of Jordan, white marks can be seen. These cities were destroyed because of their wickedness; because God is righteous.

On the Last Day when He comes, He will come in His wrath to execute judgement on the wicked and sinners. Those who rebel and couldn’t care less about Him in their lives. God will come in His wrath to punish these people. But know that God is not a God of wrath but a God of righteousness. The Holy and righteous will be preserved.

The life of a person who truly believes in Jesus will be very different from the life of one who doesn’t. Seeing a true Christian is seeing the mark of Jesus on our foreheads. “You’re a Christian right?”
“How do you know?”
“You seem like one.”

3 sisters were known to be Christians by other people. That was because of their conduct.

Being saved by the grace of the Lord, delivered from evil, and changed into the nature of Christ enables us to lead godly lives. We have the hope of the righteous judgement because we know when we obey the teachings of God, even if we may be persecuted or hated by our family members, we know we do according to the will of God. And the result is the crown of righteousness.