As a child of God, I live with the consciousness that I represent my father everywhere I go. I represent Him in the manner that I speak, walk, carry myself, execute my work and so on. I live with that consciousness that I must never misrepresent my father who is a good God. In my opinion, I consider it a slap to my face and also dragging my father’s name in the mud if anyone says about me,”oh! I thought she was a christian!” It must never be said of me or any child of God in the name of Jesus.
But as much as I want and I hope for this to be the reality of my brothers and sisters in Christ, the opposite is the case many of the times. I think it is great to give ourselves to spiritual activities such as praying, fasting and seeking the Lord but even more so we should give ourselves to bearing the fruit of the spirit as prescribed by apostle Paul in Galatians 5. Furthermore, we should give ourselves to an all round development of our stature both physically and spiritually. With that said, we shall take a close look at Apostle Peter’s admonition to us all who share in the precious faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
II Peter chapter one starts off with a greeting to everyone who shares the same faith in Jesus. I find this beautiful because it cuts across our brothers and sisters who lived when this was written and even our siblings who lived after, and to us who are alive right now and eventually believers that would live in the years to come. The meat of this chapter takes off from verse three in my opinion as apostle Peter points out to us that we have been given everything that we need to live a godly life. Even more so , Jesus Christ has called us to Himself to know Him and share in His divine nature– II Peter 1:5. I find verse five profound because it tells us that we all have been called to a life of sharing and expressing Jesus’ divine nature. And when I think of Jesus’ nature, all I can think of is a good man who walked around the earth all about His father’s business doing good. He wasn’t a man to lie, neither was he a man to gossip or backbite or scheme evil against anyone. Jesus Christ wasn’t a man to sow discord amongst the brethren or people in general. He wasn’t a tribalist, neither was He a racist. Jesus Christ loved the world and gave His all for the world. The list goes on and on about how good my Jesus Christ is. I am almost certain that you agree with me about this description of Jesus Christ. But that isn’t the bone of contention today, my questions to you today are:
- How much of the nature of Jesus Christ are you soaking in?
- How much of the nature of Jesus Christ are you expressing?
While you ponder on those questions, let us go back to the wise words and advise of apostle Peter. He says to us that to the faith that we have received, we should add virtue to it. And to this virtue we should add knowledge, to knowledge, self-control, to self control we should perseverance to perseverance we should add brotherly kindness and finally add love to it. Why? should we add these things to ourselves? Because when these things abound in our lives it helps our fruitfulness and growing knowledge of Jesus Christ- II Peter 1:5-8. I love how the New Living Translation puts it, “Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence”. While the Message translation puts it in the simplest say possible,”so don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character”. Key word, good character!
It is not enough to speak in diverse tongues or see visions or even do the miraculous and still live in moral decadence. So I wrap up this blog post, let us go back to the two questions that I asked above:
- How much of the nature of Jesus Christ are you soaking in?
- How much of the nature of Jesus Christ are you expressing?
We all are work in progress without a doubt but nonetheless there must be constant growth in our lives as we live in Christ. If you are being honest with yourself and you identify ways you are falling short of expressing Jesus’ nature, the way out is to abide in Him and Him in you. How can we abide in Him, you may ask? Well He gave us the answer in John 6:56 -“anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him”. Eat his flesh? Jesus’ flesh is the bread of life which is the word of God given to thrive through life- John 5:51-53. Furthermore the word of God is spirit and life which is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness- II Timothy 3:16. As often as we eat or ingest the word of God, we are transformed inside out conforming and becoming the perfect image of Christ.
I leave you with this charge dear Christian, live with the consciousness that you are representing your dear father here on earth. And if you were to give an account of your representation, will God be proud of your report?