What Are You Living For?

Imagine for a moment that you go to the doctor for your yearly check up. Once all of your test results have come in, you learn that you have cancer. The news could not be worse. However, the doctor tells you that there is hope. But only if you make some major changes to your lifestyle. Radical changes. Your diet must change and you must say goodbye to most of the junk foods that you love. Your daily schedule must change, where now you must prioritize exercise above lesser hobbies. And you must take many different medications and supplements each day to kickstart your body’s immunities. 

Now that you have the knowledge that there is hope for a full recovery, you would be crazy not to follow the doctor’s advice. No sacrifice or lifestyle alteration would be too much given the fact that you are facing certain death if changes are not made. You would waste no time getting rid of the things that were contributing to your cancer, and begin to implement in their place the things that could save your life. Your whole life going forward would be one that is lived in light of the good news of a cure that you had received.

Years later after you have followed the doctor’s orders and have been completely cured, you still live the lifestyle prescribed by the doctor. Because you have grow to love it now and you can see the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle. And due to the fact that these major changes saved your life, you would likely become an advocate, telling others the dangers of your former practices of life and how your new life can also be a means to the salvation of others. 

In like manner, so many professing Christians have received the good news of the Gospel. They know that apart from Christ, they are sinful transgressors against a Holy God who stand eternally separated and condemned to Hell. But in Christ, they have been justified by His shed blood and have been adopted into God’s family. As a result, the true believer now lives their life in light of the Gospel and for the glory of Christ who has saved them. 

The question that many believers need to ask themselves is, “What am I currently living my life for?” As one theologian said, “If Christ is risen, then nothing else matters.” Are you living your lives in light of eternity? Or have you casually accepted a Jesus that saves yet brings no internal change? And just to be clear, if your encounter with Jesus has brought little to no change in your life, then you did not meet Jesus. Because Jesus does not just bring salvation, He brings change.

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Matthew 6:33.

Todd Friel once quipped, “God is not suppose to be at the top of our list of priorities. He is suppose to be the paper on which all of our priorities are listed.” In other words, everything we do in life is to be done with the glory of God in mind. As believers, we have been given new hearts which now desire God. And an overflowing of that new heart is that our external actions are affected. Where when once sought after our own ways and strived to attain the desires of our flesh, we now desire the Kingdom of God and the righteousness of Christ. The call for believers to seek first the Kingdom of God is more than just a command. It is now the passion of the one who has been truly converted to Christ. 

A person does not have to change when they come to faith in Christ. Rather, they now desire change. They want to change. The sins that they once craved are now despised by the believer. And they long to grow more in their likeness to Christ. Not only that, but prayer becomes a necessity in the life of believers. Radical changes begin to take place in the one who has tasted the grace of God in Christ. And priorities begin to change as well.

Let me ask a question to those who profess faith in Jesus. What are you living for? What drives you daily? What consumes your thoughts? Is it you job? Is it your hobbies? Is it your relationships? Or are you pursing Christ in all of these things?

For example, do you see your marriage first and foremost as a means to grow in Christ likeness and glorify Him? If so, do you prioritized prayer and time in the word with your spouse? Are you seeking to love them as a mirror image of the love between Christ and His church? If you are not doing these things, then your marriage is not centered upon Christ and His glory.

How about your hobbies? Is your means of recreation creating avenues for you to become more like Christ and bring Him glory? Are they opening up doors for you to share the Gospel with others who share the same interests? If the answer is no, then your hobby may bring satisfaction to you, but it is not bringing glory to Christ. 

What about your job? Granted, not all areas of employment allow for open Gospel proclamation. But this bleeds over into how we see our finances. How are you using the money that you earn from you job to prioritize the Kingdom of God? Do you tithe to your church regularly? Do you attempt as best you can to support missional efforts in reaching the lost? If the answer is no, then your job is not a means to glorify Christ. 

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31

If we have truly been saved, then our lives and our loves reflect that change. We no longer love what displeases Christ, but now we love what is pleasing to Him. As believers, we no longer yearn for the desires of our flesh, but now in Christ we long for the righteousness of Christ in our lives. And this change plays out in our finances, our marriages, our hobbies, and in every area of our lives. Christ is not the believers top priority. Rather, He is the focus of all of their priorities. 

“Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” 2 Corinthians 13:5.