How to be a good Christian according to the Bible

Everywhere and at all times the apostles, though they may occasionally refer to the law, to point out with greater force any inconsistency with the more exalted principles on which the Christian is called to act, present Christ to us as the alone standard of conduct or rule of life for Christians, and never the law; for every christian act, or motive, or feeling, the scriptures hold up Christ before us. Is strife or vain glory to be avoided? it is through having the mind that was in Christ Jesus, who, having the divine glory, took the form of a servant, and by lowliness and self-renunciation in this world traced the path out for us that leads to exaltation and glory from God alone (Phil. 2). Is liberality to brethren in question? The grace of the Lord Jesus is the example set before us, who "though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich" (2 Cor. 8:9). Is patient submission to injustice from others, without murmuring to be inculcated? We are "to follow his steps," who alone of all others being free from blame and able to punish, "when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously" (1 Peter 2:19-23). Is unselfish surrender of our own feelings and inclinations for the good of others the lesson to be taught? We are told of One, "who pleased not himself," but made Himself, for God's glory and our sakes, the object of all human reproach (Rom. 15:3). Is faith to be maintained in the heart of the Christian amid circumstances of affliction and danger? The confidence in God exhibited by Christ in presence of death and the grave, and all the power of the world and of Satan, and which was answered in the resurrection, presents itself at once as the means of support (2 Cor. 4:13-14). Indeed it would be difficult to find any trait of Christian character, of which He is not made the illustration, for our general walk (1 John 2:6), for purity (3:3), for love (3:16), for holiness of conduct (Eph. 4:20-21). and for patient endurance (Heb. 12:2-3).

We see then how blessedly the apostle refers to this for power and practice. He takes now the positive side - the spirit and path in which I walk. "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." That is, walk like Christ. Having now Christ as my life, and Christ as my object, I am given power over the motives that were mine before, and things that are around me have lost their force. I speak of what the life is in its character and principles. The one object that the new life has is Christ; that which alone forms and governs this life is Christ; and, the soul of the believer being filled with Him, the things of the outward world have lost their force: his mind is filled with something else. The life that is in him is occupied with Christ. The consequence of this is that outward things have no longer their influence over him. "The eye is single, and the whole body is full of light." Hence what excites the old man is not working now in that way, and the thing manifested is the effect of Christ as revealed to the new man - the new man living on Him. The apostle puts it thus: "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved," etc. He does not say, You make out that you are "elect of God, holy and beloved." He says, This is your place: I want you to live in the consciousness of this; and you are now as such to do so-and-so. Such is the truth of all blessed affections. If I as a child doubted that my father were my father, how could I have the affections of a child? I should say, I wish I were sure of it; but I could not have the full flow of affection that follows from having no doubt about it.

"He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked" (I John 2:6). "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (I John 3:16). "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul" (I Pet. 2:11; see also verses 12-23). "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love" (Eph. 4:1-2). "Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us" (Eph. 5:1-2). "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light" (Eph. 5:8). "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil" (Eph. 5:15-16). "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16). "For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have, done to you" (John 13:15). "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love" (John 15: 10). "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you" (John 15:12). "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me" (John 14:21). 'And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment" (I John 3:22-23). "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them" (Heb. 10: 16). A beautiful illustration of this principle is seen in a mother's love for her child. The law requires parents to care for their offspring and pronounces penalties for the willful neglect of them; but the land is full of happy mothers who tenderly care for their children in perfect ignorance of the existence of such a statute. The law is in their hearts. It is instructive, in this connection, to remember that God's appointed place for the tables of the law was within the ark of the testimony. With them were "the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded" (types: the one of Christ our wilderness bread, the other of resurrection, and both speaking of grace), while they were covered from sight by the golden mercy seat upon which was sprinkled the blood of atonement. The eye of God could see His broken law only through the blood that completely vindicated His justice and propitiated His wrath (Heb. 9:4-5). It was reserved to modernists to wrench these holy and just but deathful tables from underneath the mercy seat and the atoning blood and erect them in Christian churches as the rule of Christian life.

The power for a Christian life, one who knew it well thus declares to us: "The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Faith, which has Christ before it as its object, works by love; not self-love, but a devout, adoring remembrance of a Saviour's wondrous sacrifice. And the pattern and power for this walk is He whose life and death had been for others, not Himself. Thus the apostle could say as to the moral transformation wrought by Christianity, how Christ "died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him that died for them and rose again." Not mere correct living, not mere conformity to an outward rule, but a life issuing from devotedness of heart to a Redeemer-God! this is, in the apostle's view of it, Christianity. But this is in entire opposition, in principle, to a life which finds its motives in personal needs and ends — in fear of eternal judgment. "Faith worketh by love," not by fear; and, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment." Thus God, whose love alone is perfect, casts fear out of our hearts, that He Himself may reign there.

Love is the second great characteristic of God, and there­fore of the Christian's walk. We are exhorted to walk in love — love to God, to our fellow believers, to our fellow men. Love to God shows itself in obedience. Obedience, to be worth anything, is the offspring of love. Thus alone Christ obeyed, and to His obedience are we set apart (1 Pet.1:2-14). Turning instinc­tively to God for direction in every event of life, waiting till we get it, and then following it. Such is the path of Psalm 32, and that of the obedient child—a path of security, of happiness, of freedom from care, though not from carefulness. “To obey,” too, “is better than sacrifice,” and it springs from hearkening, which is better than “the fat of rams” (1 Sam. 15:22). It may not bring us much praise or credit, but it always pleases God, and even when we are slow of under­standing, if the desire is to obey, the Lord will guide. This then is the proof of love to God, and a special blessing is re­served for those who thus walk (John 14:23). Love to our brethren is mostly shown in washing one another's feet; this is the most delicate proof of real love that can be given, and the rarest (John 13). Love can be shown in the cup of cold water, in the offering of a sweet-smelling savor (Phil. 4:18), in caring for bodily or spiritual needs. The heart that is “at leisure from itself, to soothe and sympathize,” will readily dis­cover the appropriate way of showing love. Love to the world at large is most shown in pointing them to Christ. Caring for the suffering and the poor is an essentially Christian duty; but care for the soul comes first, though it may not always be made the most prominent.

To follow the teaching of the passage we may ask ourselves three questions: (1) What is the fruit of which the Lord speaks? (2) What are the means taken that the true disciples may be fruitful? (3) What is the great end in view in fruit-bearing? What then does the Lord mean when He speaks of fruit? May we not say that fruit is all that in our lives which is agreeable to God? It follows that only that which is of Christ in us can be for the Father's delight. We may therefore say, that fruit is the character of Christ reproduced in the lives of His disciples. We read in Galatians 5:22, that "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, self-control" (N. Tn.). These are the very qualities that marked Christ in His path down here, and that called forth the Father's expression of pleasure, for the voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son in whom I have found my delight." Fruit, then, is not simply preaching and teaching, or activity in different forms of service, or in this passage even souls won for Christ through the preaching, but rather the beautiful qualities of Christ seen in the souls that are won. Alas! it is possible to be very active in Christian service and yet exhibit very little of the character of Christ in the life, and, therefore, bring forth but little fruit for the delight of the Father. Moreover, let us remember that what goes up to God as fruit, goes out to man as testimony. These two thoughts are expressed by the Lord's words, "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples." The life that glorifies the Father and delights His heart becomes a testimony to the world that we are Christ's disciples. That we are truly His disciples will be far more manifest by a little meekness and gentleness, than by any amount of activity. Mary's quiet dependence upon the Lord, that led her to sit at His feet and hear His word, brought forth fruit that was far more pleasing to the heart of Christ than all Martha's sincere energy. We are not all called or gifted to take an active part in preaching or teaching, or many other forms of service; but it is open to all — the youngest as the oldest believer — to express in our life the beautiful traits of Christ, and thus bring forth fruit for the Father and testimony before men. Christ, personally, is no longer on earth; but God desires that Christ, morally, should still be seen in His people. In the measure in which this is true there will be fruit and testimony.

Mark what the Apostle Paul says, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast." Here we have what we may call the upper side of this great practical question. Then the other side, to which every true and earnest Christian will delight to give his attention. The apostle goes on to say, "We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God has before prepared that we should walk in them. "

Here we have the whole subject fully and clearly before us. God has created us to walk in a path of good works, and He has prepared the path of good works for us to walk in. It is all of God, from first to last; all through grace, and all by faith. Thanks and praise be to God that it is so! But, let us remember that it is utterly vain to talk about grace and faith, and eternal life, if the "good works" are not forthcoming. It is useless to boast of our high truth, our deep, varied, and extensive acquaintance with Scripture, our correct position, our having come out from this, that, and the other, if our feet are not found treading that "path of good works which God has before prepared" for us.

The believer, "through the law," as shown by the apostle Paul, is "dead to the law," that he may "live unto God." He can say, like Paul, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." This is his standing before God, and the result upon his outward conduct should be, as with the apostle, "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." (Gal. 2:19-20.) He has no longer the law, but Christ, for his standard. To live Christ, that is, to reproduce as it were the life of Christ in our own, is true Christian walk. Christ always walked in the Spirit, and if we are walking in the Spirit we "shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh," but shall bring forth those fruits of the Spirit — that "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance," which adorn in such rich clusters the life of the blessed Lord. (Gal. 5:20-23.) It is impossible to gather grapes from the thorns of the old nature. Christ is the true vine, the one stock from which fruit for God can be brought forth. Only as we are branches abiding in Him can we bear fruit like His own; only thus is it possible for us "so to walk even as He walked." (John 15:5; 1 John 2:6.)

A. ― The Christian as dead and risen with Christ, and as having put off the old man with his deeds, is to act in the truth of this, and disallow and refuse every movement of the flesh, the untruthfulness of which is unchanged, even by a new life in Christ risen. The life which he possesses in Christ is to be seen, and it only. If the believer is "in Christ" on high, Christ is in him below, and his responsibility is that "Christ" should be seen, and never anything else but "Christ."

The word of exhortation is intended, by its action on the conscience of a Christian, to quicken the energies of his inner man to the more effectual assertion of the glory of God by like-mindedness to Christ (Phil. 2:5), and consequent subjection to the will of the Father. Christian conduct is not that negative holiness only which consists in abstinence from moral evil in obedience to the commandments of God. It is the fruit and expression of an energy which has its birth-place in the soul's communion with God in Christ, and seeks its end in the positive accomplishment of His will. It is, therefore, a progressive thing. Every real believer has been sanctified once for all to God through the precious blood which has washed him, and the Spirit which has sealed him, as now no longer his own, but pertaining to Him who has bought him with a price. But there is another sense in which a Christian is said to be sanctified, namely, as the result of single-hearted devotedness to the Lord, which, making Him the sole object of life and action, is withdrawn more and more from harmful contact with evil, whether in the Church or in the world. Dissociation, in the power of a word-enlightened conscience, from all evil, is the just effect of the sanctification of the Lord Himself in the heart (1 Peter 3:15). A Christian who walks thus, is said to be a vessel sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work (2 Tim. 2:21). Conscience thus becomes the regulating spring, and the continual incentive to the believer as a bearer of the name of Christ.