“Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel…” (Philippians 1:27).
It looks like it really matters to God, how we live our Christian lives.
Just because our sins are forgiven by the grace of God, and they have been forgiven if you are in Christ, it doesn’t mean that you and I can live how we want to live.
If that would be our attitude and our way of thinking I would boldly say we never truly believed in the Lord Jesus Christ… the new birth did not happen… the regeneration has not occurred. A renewed mind will never think in that way.
If you were saved by the Gospel you will live by the Gospel. Apostle Paul makes it clear just few verses earlier (v.21) that for him “to live is Christ and to die is gain”.
Above all, Paul wanted their lives to reflect on the worthiness of the Gospel. It is a truth that he reiterates throughout this letter.
He urges them to “be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life…” (2:15-16).
How can such a way of life be achieved?
The only answer to this question is: Christ and His Word!
We are to look at Him! We are to have a mindset like His!
Jesus Christ, “who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).
A Christ-like mindset is the first step towards a life worthy of the Gospel!