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We must be what the Lord
wants us to be; salvation is individual, God has
a plan for each life. When God says,
"...work out your own salvation..."
He merely wants you to be individually what He
wants you to be. God believes in
infinite variety. I'm told that there are no two
flowers alike. I was amazed not long
ago to study and find that there are no two
snowflakes alike. So don't feel
strange if I would tell you that there are no
two Christians alike.
Here's the difference between unity and
uniformity. Many people have lost
the message of unity and are teaching
uniformity. Unity begins in the
hearts and comes among a people where each one
is working out their salvation before God in
their individual life. They allow
each other to be free before God to walk as God
works it in their lives.
Uniformity, on the other hand, is outside
pressure which makes us all come to one
standard. God likes variety.
He will teach us just alike over many
things, but we must be like Christ, and as we
are like Christ, we must be ourselves.
We must not try to imitate one
another. We must not try to imitate
even great Christians. Paul said in
1 Corinthians 11:1, "Be ye followers of me, even
as I also am of Christ." Paul wanted
them to take him for an example; but above all,
he wanted them to keep their eyes on Jesus.
We have to own the fact
that every one of us, as saints of God, have
feet made of clay. You may get your eyes on a
saint and try to imitate them, but they may fail
you. I don't think there's a saint
who has not had a failure, but there is One who
never fails. Influences are sowed in
congregations, which work right against the
standard of the Gospel. God never
called us to imitate any brother or
sister. The question is: Would Jesus
do it? Did Jesus tell you to do
that? Did God work that in you?
We're not supposed to try to work out
anything which God does not work in.
God is not working lots of things in
people that they are trying to work
out. God will never work in me to
misuse a brother, no matter how much he misuses
me.
In verse 14 and 15, Paul
contrasts the life of a believer with those of
people living in the world. Ever
since there has been a Church, the devil's big
move has been to blend the edges of the Church
with the edges of the world. He's out to make
the world churchy and the Church
worldly. However, that which God
works in the hearts and lives of His people
causes them to live a life, which is much
different than that of the
world.
