Be a Spur: Encourage Others Toward Love and Good Deeds

The world is deeply in need of believers who have full confidence in all of God’s good, pleasing and perfect promises revealed within His Word - holding unswervingly to the hope they profess - that they may be used to spur others on towards love and good deeds. Scripture also tells us in Proverbs 27:17 (NIV): “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Further, as fire consumes all in its path and yeast permeates dough, grace is to spread itself to others. We are not to “walk worldly” rather “other worldly” for this very reason. Our lights are to shine so brightly so that others may see our good deeds and glorify our Father in heaven. Christians are to walk like Christians – not as the world does.

God desires for us to “shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the Word of Life”, Paul writes in Philippians 2:15B-16A. Grumbling and complaining are not appropriate dress for a child of the King. On the other hand, being joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer stand out like a sparkling diamond against the black backdrop of this dark world. If we call ourselves Christians, then we are to be Christians. We do much disservice to the Lord Jesus when we claim faith sans any change in our behaviors. Indeed, if this is the case, we should question if we really are His.  

The believer in sweet Jesus is to seek to walk in a manner worthy of this high calling. Will it be perfect, no. But we repent and we turn from whatever has broken our fellowship with Him – running back to the foot of the cross – perhaps again and again – for forgiveness and cleansing. Jesus desires for our lives to be a testimony of His faithfulness to this fallen and broken world who desperately needs a Savior. And we have One, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Further, the greatest testimony for Jesus is the changed life of the believer. The Apostle Paul prays in Philippians 2:9-11 (NIV): “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God.” He later states in Philippians 2:5-11 (NIV) that the believer’s attitude should resemble that of our Lord Jesus: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”