Living for Christ

What does it mean to be a full-time Christian? To go to church every Sunday or to make it to every Bible study or group event? We as Christians struggle to find the right answer to this question, even though the answer is plain and simple. To be a full-time Christian simply means to live for Christ in all aspects of our lives, not just on Sundays.

Living for Christ is easier to do on the first day of the week. We go to church twice, sing praises to God, and live that day a bit differently from the others in the week. We talk about the sermons in good fellowship with other like-minded believers, go to Bible study or young adults Sunday evening, and focus on the word of God. But what happens when Monday morning rolls around? Do we stay truly focused on the matters we dwelled on the day before? Or do we go through the motions as we go about our daily lives?

Work and school, marriage and finances, and countless other things take up a huge majority of our lives. Trying to remember the sermon we just heard in church the day or two after becomes a struggle. We get caught up in the language of the world around our coworkers and classmates, forgetting that just days prior we sang the praises of the Lord Jesus. We act as if we were merely part-time Christians.

This should scare us. We tend to think that, yes, we are Christians. We believe in God, we live a Christian life, and we have good godly friends. But doing our personal devotions flies out the window with the amount of time we spend working, going on dates, hanging out with friends, and doing the crazy amounts of homework college requires. Talking with our friends about God and the gospel becomes an “only Sunday” thing, and even the thought of talking about God with coworkers and colleagues sounds weird and impossible.

How terrible that sounds! But that’s us! We aren’t any better people than the ones living around us. Satan creeps in a lot easier when we live as part-time Christians. When praising God and talking about Him with others is only for Sundays. When other things become more of a priority than personal devotions or reading the Bible. The devil suddenly finds an easy way in. It would be so easy to just forget about reading the Bible at all, when I only do it once a week anyway. I have so much homework to finish up, I can miss the evening service at church. I go in the morning, that should be enough.

The thing is, Satan works full-time. He doesn’t take a break, because when we do, he is there to take advantage of us. The one time we miss church, he is there to put wicked thoughts in our heads, and lead us to do worldly things.

We are called by God to be full-time Christians. Maybe not in those exact words, but in Ecclesiastes 12:13 we are reminded that it is the whole duty of man to fear God and keep His commandments. And not just one day out of the week, but all day, every day, for our whole life. And that is so hard. With Satan there, ready to creep in when we fall spiritually (which is often because of our sinful nature) it is hard to maintain a good, godly life. We could never do any of this on our own. Titus 2:11-13 brings a strong word of encouragement on this matter. “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.”

Let us live for Christ as full-time Christians in a world that constantly tempts us to fall away from the faith. Satan will never stop at trying to get us to fall from Christ, but he will never win. God is above all things, even the devil. In John 10:29, the words of Christ clearly put this in perspective for us, “My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” The devil will never be able to snatch us away from God because Christ already died for us, and we are His own.

Kaylie DeVries