A Missionary Life

  • Sunday, May 24, 2015
  • Steve Ellison

One of the overarching themes of the Bible is that Christians will live in union with Christ.  As believers in Christ, we have suffered with Christ, died with Christ, risen with Christ, and now live in, with, and by Christ.  We are not our own.  We have been bought with a terrible and a wonderful price.  We have our very being in Christ.   Christ lives through us.  The Biblical illustration which pictures this union is human marriage.  One of the main reasons for marriage is producing fruit.  Children are the fruit of marriage.  Surely, there are occasions when marriages will not produce children.  While I am in no way arguing the morality or rightness of choosing not to have children, it is readily apparent that producing children is the usual and expected result of marriage.  God designed it that way to serve as the perfect illustration for the usual and expected result of the Christian’s union with Christ.

Colossians 4:2-6 is a pertinent passage speaking to our bearing fruit,  Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; 3 praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; 4 that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.  5 Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. 6 Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. (NASU)  Chapters 1-3 of Colossians are about our union with Christ.  Chapter four addresses the natural and expected result of this marvelous union.  First of all, we ought to be praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ, that God would open up opportunities for them to share the Word of God which contains the good news about salvation and forgiveness found in Christ.  Furthermore, we ought to pray that other believers would be able to communicate the gospel clearly so that unbelievers would be able to understand it.

In addition to needing opportunities to share and the ability to communicate clearly, there are some other needs.  Verse five addresses our behavior.  This verse calls us to govern our behavior not on what we think our rights are, or on what we think will benefit us.  Rather, we are told to behave in such a way as to make the most of the aforementioned opportunities that God has sent our way.  We ought to order our behavior in a way that would influence unbelievers to be responsive to the gospel.  Verse six tells us that our speech bears some scrutiny also.  We are told to season our speech with grace.  This grace in our speech ought to act like salt.  It should make people thirsty for the Living Water.   The grace in our speech should make our gospel presentation have a good flavor.  The grace in our speech should act as an antiseptic in neutralizing the spiritual germs that would inhibit the growth of the gospel in the unbeliever.  

Verse six also states that the grace in our speech will have an effect on us.  It will cause us to know how to respond to each person.  God gives us individual grace for each encounter. We serve a mighty God.  Our life in union with Christ will automatically result in fruit.  We will reproduce.  Christians will produce Christians because of their union with Christ.  Are you producing?  If not, why not?  That is a most important question.  

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pastorsteve8800@gmail.com

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