Hi atonement, All quotes are atonement's.
What is walking the walk for Christ?
I Thessalonians 3:12-13
12 And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:
13 To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.
Abounding love is walking for Christ. This establishes our hearts before God, and it sanctifies us to holiness.
Is it more then just proclaiming your a Christian?
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
I think it is a true, and proper, fear of the God we love. Proclaiming to be a christian is to serve Him above all else, and do all unto Him alone.
Do people actually watch us and see how we handle ourself in public?
1 Thessalonians 4:9-12
9 But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
10 And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more;
11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;
12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.
I think that brotherly love between believers is most important to our witness, because this is directly taught to us by the Spirit in us. Secondly, to walk honestly, work hard, study to be quiet...those who are without see thes things, and know that we lack nothing when we are God's children.
Are we to be on guard day and night?
1 Thessalonians 5:4-11
Jesus will come as a thief in the night upon those who do not know Him, but.....
4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
11 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.
We are to watch, and be sober, and we are also to comfort each other, and edify one another to help others watch, and be sober.
What does the Bible say about this topic?
1 John 3:17-18
17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
and...
James 1:27
27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
I wanted to add a brief story of someone I know.
I have a friend that I grew up with, and she married just out of college. The man was nice, but he was not a believer. My friend was not saved at that time either, but about 3 years later she became a christian. Her husband did drink alcohol, and whenever she would visit the grocery store, she would purchase both alcohol, and cigarettes, for him. She decided from the beginning that she would focus on doing her best for God, and serving Him, and her husband, in her ministry as a wife...that included buying his beer, and cigarettes for nearly 7 years after her conversion. Now, nearly 10 years later, her husband has been a believer for 3 years. He is one of the most humble, and godly, leaders in our church. She was being submissive, and winning him without a word by her conduct. The Lord heard her prayers, and blessed them both (their whole family too...4 children as well now) in her obedience. He recently gave a prayer request praising God for his wife, and her witness.
The Lord bless all of you.
