◄ What Does 1 Thessalonians 2:12 Mean? ►

A Christian should be more concerned with the development of personal character, growing in grace, maturing in the faith, and the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit, than engaging in a ministry of activities, however valuable it may seem to us or to others. The latter can only flow from the former.

The gracious attitude and godly conduct of a believer is of more significance to our Heavenly Father than the good works that we carry out for Him. God is more concerned with who we are than with what we do. Oh! God has prepared good works for all His children, but they can only be carried out profitably in the one who is walking in spirit and truth, trusting the Lord wholeheartedly, and not relying on their own understanding.

Paul's challenge to the believers at Thessalonica was to walk worthy of God's call on their lives. He urged them to live in a manner that was worthy of God, Who calls each one of us into His kingdom and glory. The message Paul taught, combined with his own personal life-style, was a living example of a worthy walk before God. Paul exemplified a man living to honour the Lord and reflecting the character of God.

Just as we can never fulfil Christ's new commandment to love others as He loved us without His sufficient grace flowing through us in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, so we are incapable of walking before God in a worthy manner without the enabling of His Spirit, through His sufficient strength.

We are all called into a life of holiness. We are commanded to live and move and have our being as a worthy witness to the Lord Jesus Christ, Who saves and sanctifies us. Our Christian walk should be the transparent evidence of a life, wholeheartedly surrendered to our God, both in the intent of our minds and the testimony of our deeds.

It is only when we are willing to admit that without Christ's sufficient strength we can do nothing, that He empowers us through the indwelling Spirit of Christ. It is only as we confess we can do nothing in our own strength that we receive the sufficient grace to walk worthily before Him. It is only as we understand that we can do all through Christ, because HE strengthens us, that we can walk in a manner that is worthy of God Who calls us into His own kingdom and glory.

Walking in a manner that is worthy of God is perhaps the highest calling to which those who have tasted of His gracious salvation can ascend. We have not only received forgiveness of sin and life everlasting through faith in Him, but have been called to be partakers of God's heavenly kingdom and received a share in His own glory, as heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ!

We who were once living in the kingdom of darkness, enslaved to sin, and steeped in shame, have been forever transported into His kingdom of light and received life, grace, glory, forgiveness, and hope. How important that we should all would walk in a manner worthy of our Father Who calls us into His own kingdom and glory, to the praise of His holy name.

Let us seek to walk in a manner that is worthy of our calling as children of God. May our personal character and conduct give honour to His holy name, for in His grace He has called us out of the kingdom of darkness into His own heavenly kingdom and glory. Praise His holy name.

Dear Lord, thank You that I have been rescued from enslavement to sin and brought into Your heavenly kingdom and eternal glory. I pray that I may be a worthy witness of Your grace and goodness to all those with whom I come in contact today. Enable me, in the power of Your Spirit, to tread each step of my earthly walk in a manner that is well-pleasing to You. This I ask in Jesus' name, AMEN.