Life On the Highest Plane
Such unity in the body of Christ is the most convincing of all arguments to an unbelieving maladjusted world of the power of the living Christ. Christ prayed that this oneness of mind and heart manifested in His disciples would bring many to believe in Him as the God-sent One. God would glorify Himself through solidarity in the body of Christ Jesus.
Dear fellow-member of the body of Christ, are you living in harmonious and peaceful adjustment to every other member of that body? Is there something between you and a fellow-Christian for which you are responsible? If so, are you satisfied to have such a condition continue or are you ready to let the great Physician heal the breach? He is able to do it if you will cooperate with Him. Your part is threefold.
First, will you lay aside by confession all sin of your heart toward another?
1 Peter 2:1, "Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings."
Second, will you live by 1 Corinthians 13 every day of your life? Will you let the love-truth of that chapter become your code of conduct? Will you take your spiritual pulse by this infallible thermometer? Will you judge yourself, rather than your fellows, by this divine standard of love? Will you let the Holy Spirit clothe you with love?
Third, will you unite your prayer with that of your Lord that you may be "made perfect in one" with every other member of His body? And will you allow nothing to remain in your mind or in your heart that separates you even a hair's breadth from any other child of God?
The Spiritual Man's Relationship to the World
A right adjustment with God necessitates a re-adjustment of relationship to the world. The boundary line between the spiritual man and the worldling is clearly marked and a wall of separation is built by God. The spiritual man is a non-conformist in his relationship to the world.
The Christian is taken out of the world yet he is sent back into it. For what purpose?
John 17:18, "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world."
John 20:21, "Then said Jesus unto them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you."
Christ came into the world as the Father's ambassador. Into a world alienated from God He brought "the good tidings of great joy" that a way was opened through Himself back to the Father's heart and home.
The Christian now goes forth as an ambassador of the Kingdom of Heaven into the enemy's territory to carry the message of reconciliation to those who are alienated from God. Having experienced the joy of restoration to God through faith in Christ he cannot rest satisfied until he has brought others into the same joy. So he gladly accepts the responsibilities and obligations resting upon him through this ministry of reconciliation and gives himself to the winning of souls.
Christ came into a world enveloped in densest darkness to be its light. Into that same world every Christian is sent to be a light. In the beauty of the Christian's character and in the blessing of the Christian's service Christ would radiate the sweetness and strength of His own life and draw sinners unto Himself.
The Holy Spirit - The Divine Agent in this Three-fold Adjustment
The adjustment which brings the Christian into a right relationship with God, with his fellow-Christians and with the world, is made by the Holy Spirit who indwells and infills the spiritual man. It is He who takes of the love of the crucified, risen and ascended Christ and sheds it abroad in the heart of the Christian until each one loves the Father as the Son loves Him, and loves the fellow-members of the body of Christ as the Head loves them, and loves the unsaved in the world as the Saviour loves them.
Romans 5:5, "And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us."
1 Thess. 2:8, "So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us."
Are you rightly related to God? To your fellow-Christians? To the world? If not, "Be filled with the Spirit."
~Ruth Paxson~
(continued with #1 - "The Hope of the Spiritual Man")
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