Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.-Philippians 1:27

Dallas Willard died last week.  Though I did not know him personally and never met him, I consider him to have been my mentor.  His writings never failed to stir my heart and challenge my life.  Two of his books, The Divine Conspiracy and Renovation of the Heart were especially significant to me.  Just last year I led a Sunday School class study of The Divine Conspiracy.

In that book, he used the image of a bar code to illustrate a major problem among the Christian community.  He said that a lot of people had the bar code that said “Christian” but whose life really was something different.

It is sad but the lifestyles of many people deny their labeled identity as Christian.  Lifestyle is the result of character.  It is the form or expression given to a character when lived out in a world.  The dictionary defines “style” as a manner, a method, a way, a practice, a habit, as a characteristic behavior.  It has to do with a pattern of life, not just isolated incidents, not just a particular choice or action but a pattern of choices and actions.  Our jobs are involved, our leisure, how we spend our money, the food we eat, the goods we consume, the house we live in, how we raise our children.  Everything about our lives suggests a certain style of life.

A classic example is found in the movie “Chariots of Fire.”  the story of young men preparing for the 1924 Olympics.  One is a Scottish missionary to China.  His name is Eric Liddle.  Liddle qualifies for the Olympics, but on the ship with the British Olympic team in route to Paris, he discovers that one of the races he is to run will take place on Sunday.  He refuses to run.  He is pressured from ever quarter to change his mind even to the point of bringing in the Prince of England to persuade him to run “for the honor of the country.”

Eric Liddle’s refusal to run was not just an isolated incident or sudden whim.  It was a logical development from his pattern of life.  It was in fact predictable.

Now the manner, the style of life has always been a major concern for Christians and it is clearly reflected in numerous New Testament passages.  These are just a few samples:

-To the Corinthian Christians- “you are still of the flesh.  For while there is jealously and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving like ordinary men?”
– In Ephesians Paul raises the question in terms of conduct, talk, and labor.
-The book of Phillipians says, “I hope…Christ can be honored in my body. (1:20).
“As Christians we are to be “Lights in the world” (2:15).
-We read about some who by their conduct are “enemies of the cross of Christ.”
-Those at Colosse are asked, “Why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? (Col.2:20)
-“Give up living like pagans” (Eph.)
-There are those who profess to know God “but deny him by their deeds(Eph. 1:16)
-In Titus we read that we ought to live so that in “everything you may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior” (2:10).

          From the beginning, there was never any doubt that those Christians were different.  Their style of living set them apart from the rest of the world.  But we are called not only to lives that are different, also life worthy of the gospel of Christ..

Filed under: character, Dedication, Discipleship, Example, Life style, The Journey |