As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are commanded by our Heavenly Father to follow his example. We’re bonded together in unity through Christ, and God expects us to treat each other with the knowledge that He has knitted us together in perfect harmony. We should all be trying to out-do one another in demonstrating more and more of his love. Although all of us are equally full of him, his love knows no bounds, and we will never reach the end of it. The goal is that our faith in the Lord will get expressed to others through our love for him. This is done as we are tenderhearted and forgiving of each other’s weaknesses. It’s how God desires us to be. Our all-around kindness shows we are awakened in God’s love. We should be awakened to such a degree that we are responding continuously to His love with thankfulness.
God teaches in Colossians 2:6-7(NLT), “6 And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.” Verse 6 reminds us that we must motivate ourselves in diligence and follow Christ with the attentiveness and vigilance God requires. Heavenly Father knows that sometimes we get off track with this. We become lazy and uninspired towards the things of God. This is when an apathetic attitude can make itself cozy in our walk in Christ.
To prevent this from happening, we must let our roots grow down into him. This means to walk according to the Spirit’s directive. We must take our flesh—our unbelief, doubt, emotions, and self-gratification—out of it, and bring ourselves under the submission of God’s Holy Spirit. It’s to pray, praise, mediate, and study God’s Word even when we don’t feel like it or would rather do something else.
Something happens when we yield to the Spirit and not to the flesh. Our roots in Christ grow! Our faith in him grows, because God rewards us when we put the flesh in submission and put Him first. We begin to overflow with gratitude because He causes us to witness in the most endearing way that we’ve pleased our God with our obedience.
Our language should be seasoned with gratitude to God, and it should overflow from our lips. We have a responsibility to respond to the body of Christ through God’s love. We should do it because of our gratitude for the loving kindness He has overwhelmingly poured on us through His beloved and only begotten Son. This requires us to both follow and lead by the example of Christ and to love, help, and share as he did through his life and ministry on earth.
Colossians 2:9(NLT) states, “For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.” God was in Christ reconciling us to Himself. He was showing us through Christ that we have a responsibility to govern ourselves with respect, love, kindness, and diplomacy wherever and whenever possible. Some believers believe they have a pass when it comes to this, but not so. Even though we go to church, listen to praise songs, and speak in tongues, some of us can still be very mean spirited and disrespectful. This is not the way God’s people should behave. We will be judged by the Master one day according to the degree we show his love genuinely through our deeds, behaviors, and attitudes.
We really must lead by example, because whether we realize it or not, the eyes of many are on us, watching how we represent our King. We shouldn’t be responding in love only because we expect something in return. We should respond to others through the love of Christ because this is who God has made us. We were created out of His love, with His love, to live through His love. Every action we take to move ourselves out of self and into Christ deepens our relationship with God and positions us to receive the love and goodness that we have the privilege to give out.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Lead by Example”, written by Kim Times, edited by Fran Mack for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2022. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!