Christ, Our Example

CHRIST, OUR EXAMPLE

1Thes. 1:5 & 1Pet. 2:21-23

Christ IS Our Example In Word And In Deed.

As we can walk as Christ walked, we can talk as Christ talked. This is not a condition of one’s feet or lips, it is a condition of the heart.

Before we can walk as Christ walked, and talk as He talked, we must first think as Christ thought. All action is the result of thought. Your actions are produced by what you think. “Every thought must be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” 2Cor. 10:5.

This requires an act of determined consecration, requiring purpose and continual application for the mind loves to wonder.

It also requires a willing exchange, giving up former ways of thinking and accepting “the mind of Christ” as our own. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5).

When you are birthed of God and filled with the Holy Ghost, you have two minds. In the new creation, you have the mind of God, in the old you have the carnal mind. “To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6). So we, by a determined act of our will, must let His mind be our mind. Then we will have a controlled, sane mind and remember that your actions are a product of your thoughts.

It is possible to lead a victorious thought life. This does not mean that Satan cannot come with evil suggestions, but we can refuse to dwell on that which is evil.

A sane mind is a controlled mind - filling the mind with right thoughts can drive out evil thoughts.

Phil. 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these on these things.

Evil thoughts will come, thoughts of lust, thoughts of violence. These mostly are spirits. They come uninvited into our mind. You have not sinned when they come. But if you entertain them and obey them, you sin. You drive them out by filling the mind with these things that are good, right and honest.

Jesus thought right, and the result was He walked right and talked right. “Christ Suffered For Us, Leaving Us An Example That Ye Should Follow His Steps,” “Who Did No Sin...” (1Pet. 2:21-22).

Christ did not live in habitual sin and He did not make excuses for sin.

He resisted the devil, the temptation, “He knew no sin...”, even though He was “tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).

“Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not…” (1Jn 3:6). This is opposite to most church’s teaching. Because of this, most religion is powerless. This is why there is no deliverance.

You must hear, know, believe, and live in this truth if you are to have power with God. We are not called to follow religious tradition. We must look into the Bible as if we have never seen it before. We must see the path that we are to walk, if we are to have this power and preach this Gospel in the way that is acceptable to God.

The church Jesus is coming after is not going to be some broken down religious traditional machine. He is coming after a glorious church, without spot, and without wrinkle, that is doing the works of God. To be a part of such a body we have to resist the religious bologna that says we cannot live above sin.

To abide in Christ is to walk in the Spirit of God.

To abide in Christ is “to resist the devil” – it is “to give no place to the devil” (Js. 4:7). The flesh is Satan’s place. It is his body, just as surely as the church is the spiritual body of Christ.

God’s work depends on human vessels. Clendennin says: “God the Father, through God the Holy Ghost, displaying God the Son, through a human vehicle called the church.” This has always been God’s plan. You and I are to be that vessel.

What does God say about sin, about living above sin? What does God say about our being in a life of holiness at all times? There is a reason why some have power and others do not, and it is not that God is a respecter of persons. Power is a direct result of faith, and faith comes by obedience.

1Jn. 3:21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then we have confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.