We have looked, this week, at some incredibly difficult passages of scripture where we find people who have presented themselves to Christ only to hear words of warning from Jesus about the cost of following Him. From those passages, we have learned that salvation does not mean saying a certain prayer and then go on like nothing has changed. If we truly believe in Jesus, we will follow Him. Believing in Him means we give ourselves to Him even into the point of death, if it comes to that. Jesus tells us there is a cost to salvation beyond the price that He paid. Now we address the question, “Why would we want to offer our lives to Jesus?” Today on Christian Holiness Daily.

Why should anyone follow Christ? Because the alternative is eternal separation from His love. Because the alternative is eternal separation from all love. Because without Christ we will be eternally separated from all that is good, all that is pure, all that is lovely, and all that is comforting.

I follow Christ because He loved me before He even set the earth spinning on its axis. Because He died for me even though I am a filthy sinner. I love God because He first loved me.

Before I gave myself to God, I lived a life of sin, but i believed I was a Christian. I had said the sinners prayer. I believed in Christian. I believed in Jesus. I knew He is God made flesh, born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died, was resurrected, and ascended into heaven. I believed all that, but I still lived a life of filthy sin. I was on the path that C. S. Lewis called the “safest road to hell.” It is the gradual road, never too steep. It has no road signs that identify it. But the end of the road is eternal hellfire.

After I gave myself to Christ, if I strayed from the path I discovered all kinds of road signs; there was no doubt that I had strayed. God loves His children too much to allow them to wander too far before calling them back to His side.

A couple weeks ago, I talked about Hebrews 6 and said that so long as a Christian does not turn his or her back on God and stop believing, they cannot lose salvation. This is true. Now, today, I am saying that if one believes he or she will follow Christ with total surrender, counting everything else as loss. How, you may wonder do I justify that? How can both be true, you may wonder.

I think here is where we need to define what it means to believe. If one truly believes, one will follow Christ. If one then follows Christ, they get to know their Creator, walk with Him, talk with Him, then they cannot help but change. They cannot avoid being filled with His love. That doesn’t mean they cannot sin. That doesn’t mean they cannot turn back. It does mean that if they do sin, their sin is already forgiven. If they do turn back, the Holy Spirit will hunt them down and call them back home.

I willingly surrender my life to God no matter what the cost because He is a loving Father who wants to spend time with me, His son.

Monday we begin a conversation about how salvation changes our lives. Don’t miss The Best of Christian Holiness Daily tomorrow. And tune in to Christian Holiness Sunday for classic works of old time holiness preachers and writers.
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Holiness is, perhaps, the most misunderstood concept in Christianity. Anyone who has striven to follow the life of Christ can likely tell you that it is impossible to do. No one can match His love, His grace, or His compassion. For no one but Jesus is perfect. Once the believer is filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit, though, he or she is filled to the brim with the love of Christ, and desires nothing more than to please God and follow in Christ’s steps. The love of sin is gone. In its place is a love and passion for others. That is Christian Holiness. This is Christian Holiness Daily.

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In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, Paul speaks to Christians – those who have believed on and followed in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. He tells them they need to be sanctified. They need to live a holy life. He emphasizes that they should turn away from sexual immorality. Today, we see that he encourages them to love one another (and others) more and more.

You see, love is what sets Christians apart from the rest of the world. For mortal man, it may be difficult to love someone outside our immediate family (sometimes, it is not easy to love those within our immediate family). For Christians, love – even love for others and love for our enemies – should come as natural as love for our own children.

If loving others does not come natural, then you should prayerfully and persistently seek sanctification. Ask God to rid you of worldly love, lust, selfishness, pride, and hatred, and fill you with His Holy Spirit. He will. He will perfect His love within your life. When one is filled with the Holy Spirit, one is surprised by love… a deeper love than you thought possible.

We seem to be living near the end of days and Satan has begun one final offensive in the battle against the saints of God. As a result, many Christians have ducked for cover, and are not reaching out to others in love as they should; instead many are looking out only for themselves and their closest loved ones.

We must resist fear. We must stand up to evil and call it by name. We must look evil in the eye and expel it in the name of Jesus. And we must do it all in love.

Remember, Christ sacrificed His life for the sins of the world, not just for you and me (and not just those who agree with our viewpoint). That person that we think is so evil… that one who is causing so many problems in the world…he or she may be the next Saul who finds Christ on the road to Damascus and becomes the next Apostle Paul.

We must love our enemies. Pray for those who threaten us, abuse us, and persecute us. Remember, they, too, need to know God and His love.

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What’s going on is devastating. There is one point, though, on which we should all agree, left and right, white or black or brown: if we don’t love one another, then we cannot really claim to love God. 

When asked, what is the most important commandment, Jesus answered in two parts, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and but are like angels of God in heaven. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’ ? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

They are inseparable, these two commandments: love God and love your neighbor. God’s love compels us to love our neighbors… and our enemies. Instead of meeting on the streets to confront one another, perhaps we should meet on the streets to pray for one another. 

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John Mathews was also a slave owner, like his father, and grandfathers for generations. In 1861 Mathews led a raid against a Union town in southeast Kansas. He was subsequently hunted down and killed by a force led by Col. James Blunt, an abolitionist, a Christian, and a doctor who had recently settled in Kansas. I have never understood what turns neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother, and Christian against Christian. 

I researched the lives of Mathews and Blunt and several other key players in the story for over twenty years hoping to gain insight into their thinking and discover the reason that seemingly good Christians get swept up in the currents of social and political drama. It is especially fascinating to me that there seem to be devout Christians on both sides of such issues. 

I could have saved myself countless hours of research by simply waiting twenty years, for we see the same sort of political and social divide today that we read about during the Civil War. 

There were millions like Mathews in the Civil War, Christians who pitted themselves against other Christians. Likewise, millions of Christians today take determinedly polarizing positions against their spiritual brothers and sisters; the similarity between 2016 and 1856 is incredibly frightening. 

I find myself fighting against the currents of social and political extremism. As a conservative I wonder how anyone can call themselves a good Christian and align on the opposite side, just like I wonder how John Mathews could have been both a slaveholder and a Christian, but I refuse to let the cause of social conservatism take priority over my relationship with God. 

It is difficult to temper myself, to remain rational. I unflinchingly stand for right, yet I realize it is not my place to criticize, name-call, or make an enemy of those with whom I disagree. 

Here is my place, my duty as a Christian in these trying times: it is my duty to love God with all my heart, all my soul, and all my mind. Secondly, I am to love even those I consider wrong, just as i love myself. Thirdly, I am to pray for those same folks. They seem impossible, these tasks. But they are not requests; they are commandments. 

Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” – Matthew 22:37-40

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; – Matthew 5:43-45a

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My brothers and sister and I never suffered. My brothers had bikes and skateboards. I had a trike that I peddled down the street after my sister and her boyfriend. I don’t remember my parents spoiling themselves, though. The never purchased anything on credit. They never owned a new car or fancy clothes. A photo of my parents sitting in my grandmother’s travel trailer shows Dad looking very uncomfortable. He would never own such a trailer or a nice enough car to pull it with. 

We children never went without anything we really needed. Because of the sacrifice of my mom and dad, I didn’t realize until I was grown that I had grown up poor. 

The Apostle Paul calls us in Romans 12:1 to be a living sacrifice to God. A traditional animal sacrifice in the first century consisted of the very finest. It was an animal without flaw, perfect, and pleasing to God. Jesus, God made flesh, presented His perfect life as a permanent and perfect sacrifice for all mankind. This being the case, then, why is it that Paul call us to present ourselves sacrificially.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 

– Romans 12:1 

Here, he speaks of our daily walk with Christ. Just as my parents sacrificed so much because of their love for me and my siblings, Paul tells us that our love of God should compel us to sacrifice our own selfish desires and seek the finer things that God offers us. 

We should surrender ourselves daily to God. After all, God sacrificed His only begotten Son for you and me. 

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Those nine things (“fruits”) are:

Love

Joy

Peace

Longsuffering (patience)

Kindness

Goodness

Faithfulness

Gentleness

Self-control

The Catholic church adds:

• Generosity
• Modesty
• Chastity

We are never to judge others; that’s not why the Apostle Paul penned this list. He wrote it so that we may examine our own heart. If you are a growing Christian, you will begin seeing these attributes in your own life. 

Nor are we to be “fruit inspectors.” Some who call themselves Christians justify judging and gossiping about others by quoting this verse from Matthew 7:17-20. 

Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

Put in context with the verses preceding it, and one sees Christ referring to false prophets. If we judge the quality of anyone’s life we should begin and end with our own. 

Does my life exhibit love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, generosity, modesty, and chastity?

I admit it; I’m lacking in many areas. But I’m surrendered to Christ’s will, and pray He has patience with me and helps me grow and bear good fruit. God fruit. 

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What can you do to help the toxic Christian enjoy life more, and make life more pleasant for those nearby?

1. Pray for the toxic Christian. Most people like this have become so worn down by the stresses of life that they experience no joy.  Pray for this person, that his or her joy will be restored. 
2. Tell him or her that you love them, and give them a hug. I come from a hugging church, one with many huggers. Rita, a good friend is known for her hugs. Last year when we moved our membership to a new church, I was thrilled to meet Joy, a hugger just like Rita. Everyone needs a hug once in a while. Everyone needs to experience Christian love. 
3. Invite him or her to dinner. Get to know the toxic Christian. Perhaps… just maybe, they only became toxic after feeling alienated. Maybe he or she simply needs a friend. 
4. Ask their opinion. By including the toxic Christian in serious conversation, and asking their opinion, you will demonstrate respect. Sometimes, all it takes to melt a heart is love and respect. 

Christ tells us that if we believe in Him, then rivers of living water will flow from our hearts. Share that living water with those who thirst most. 

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