To Encourage You

1 Thessalonians 5:4-8 “But you are not in darkness, brothers . . . For you are all children of light, children of the day. . .So then let us not sleep . . . let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.”

One of the many wonderful benefits of the Bible is that it provides us with a diagnosis of each and every person’s spiritual condition, and with that diagnosis comes instructions on how we are to therefore behave. Throughout the New Testament, the Bible describes the Christian with words like “You are. . .” The information that is then provided as to what we are is found nowhere else on the face of the earth.  For example, all believers are told these things about themselves:  “You are: the light of the world (Matthew 5:14); of more value than many sparrows (Matthew 10:31); friends of Christ (John 15:14); not of the world (John 15:19); sons of the living God (Romans 9:26); in Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:30); God’s temple in which God’s Spirit dwells (1 Corinthians 3:16); Christ’s possession (1 Corinthians 3:23); not your own (1 Corinthians 6:19); the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27); Abraham’s offspring by faith (Galatians 3:29); led by the Spirit (Galatians 5:18); partakers of grace (Philemon 7); witnesses (1 Thessalonians 2:10); children of light, children of the day (1 Thessalonians 5:5 above); a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession (1 Peter 2:9); God’s people (1 Peter 2:10); blessed (1 Peter 4:14); and walking in the truth (3 John 3).  To dwell on any one of these wonderful realities is enough to fill our heart with wonder and praise, yet each and every one of them is true for any person who is a born-again believer in Jesus. 

But then, along with these realities come instructions throughout the Scriptures as to how we are to think and act as a result of who we are.  If we are “the light of the world” we are not to live as if we are still in darkness, i.e., in the ignorance and wickedness of spiritual darkness. If we are the light of the world, we should act like we are.  We possess within our souls the very light of God – His knowledge, His wisdom, His truth, and the illumination of these things by way of the resident Holy Spirit Who teaches us from His Word.  We have this light, and we are not to hide it, but to shine it everywhere we go, speaking the Truth and living it out so that those who are spiritually blind can see.  If we are “of more value than many sparrows” to God, and we know that no sparrow ever falls to the ground without His knowledge, then we can be assured that He sees us “when (we) sit down and when (we) rise up” (Psalm 139:2) and that He is “acquainted with all our ways” (Psalm 139:4). Therefore, we should never have any reason to fear, come what may into our lives (Matthew 10:29-31).  If we are “sons of the Living God,” which we are, surely, we should never act like the children of the devil, which we all were before we were freed from sin, death, and hell by the Living God.  

The ways Christians are described in Scripture are so awesome that it is difficult to come to grips with them, particularly when we are faced with the reality of what we once were.  Any believer knows very well what they were before they came to know Christ. They know, that they were at war with God, disobedient, blind spiritually, and worthy of condemnation. They know that they are unworthy of the least of God’s favor. They know that their salvation is not of themselves; it is a gift that came to them only because of God’s matchless grace and wonderful mercy.   The truth that all things become new once one is born of God should thrill our hearts and motivate us to live out our life with never-ending gratitude toward the One Who loved us and died for us while we were yet sinners.  It’s something we should rejoice in and even sing about. No wonder the Lord has told us to “sing and make melody in our hearts to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19)– for how can we do anything but as the reality of what God has done for us and how He has transformed us, little by little, dawns more fully on our hearts.    And wonderfully, God has gifted some with the ability to put these realities into words to help us sing about them, like these from the old hymn “Such Love:”

That God should love a sinner such as I, Should yearn to change my sorrow into bliss. Nor rest till He had planned to bring me nigh. How wonderful is love like this? 

Chorus: 
Such love, such wondrous love 
Such love, such wondrous love, That God should love a sinner such as I, How wonderful is love like this. 

2nd Verse: 
That for a willful outcast such as I 
The Father planned, the Savior bled and died. Redemption for a worthless slave to buy, Who long had law and grace defied. 

3rd Verse: 
And now He takes me to His heart a son. He asks me not to fill a servant’s place. The far-off country wand’rings all are done. Wide open are His arms of grace.