Three Keys for Christian Living

Following Jesus is a life-long journey of finding out what pleases God and doing it (Ephesians 5:10). Over time, this means our lives are marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). This is not a checklist about what we should do; it’s a list of internal qualities that describes the kind of people we are becoming. It’s a word picture of God’s vision for our lives.

So how do we get there? Does it depend on our willpower or good intentions? Not at all. Just as we started a relationship with God by grace, we live every day by grace. Our ability to honor God is a gift from God himself! Peter explained it like this:

2 Peter‬ ‭1:3‬ By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. 

Here’s the good news: you already have access to everything you need for living a victorious Christian life! You have the capacity to manifest things like love and joy and peace in increasing measure throughout your life. But in order to do it you’ll need to tap into three keys to victory.

God’s Spirit

God has given us his Spirit to lead us, empowering us from the inside out to live God-honoring lives. The Holy Spirit is not some sort of impersonal force or an add-on feature of God’s nature. He is God himself, the third person of the Trinity. At the point of salvation the Holy Spirit immediately indwells believers and begins empowering them to live to please God (Ephesians 1:13). This was promised long ago through the prophet Ezekiel:s

Ezekiel 36:26-27 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.

Before you became a Christian, you had one nature: the “flesh” or the sinful nature. You had a “stony, stubborn heart” and trusted your own opinions instead of God’s truth. But when you became a Christian, something happened at the deepest level of your being. God gave you a new heart, one that could be “tender” and “responsive” to God’s ways. This does not mean that God eradicated your old nature. You can still sin, but now you have a choice in the matter. Here’s how Paul explained the battle within:

Galatians 5:16-17 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.

The Christian life is a journey, not just a destination. When we become Christians, our hearts are changed immediately, but our habits are transformed gradually. That’s why we need God’s Spirit. It changes us from the inside out, step by step aligning our attitudes and actions with the path that leads to life. 

Galatians 5:24-25 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.

If you struggle to honor God in your daily life, be encouraged: you are not alone! The battle is normal, but over time you can learn to let the Spirit guide your life (Romans 7:21-25). Living to honor God is a process, and God’s Spirit is there to lead you. This is the first key to victory as a Christian.

God’s Word

If God had only given us his Spirit to lead us, the Christian experience would be radically different for everyone. One man could claim that the Spirit led him to monogamy while another claimed that the Spirit prescribed polygamy. One woman could embrace drunkenness while another adopted abstinence, both supposedly led by the same Spirit. Christianity would devolve into an utterly subjective faith, and everyone could claim the moral high ground based on their personal experience with the Spirit. 

But God has not just given us his Spirit; he has also given us his Word, the Bible. Scripture helps us to evaluate everything we believe the Spirit is saying to us. The Bible is our instruction manual, guiding us and showing us the attitudes and actions that please God. The Bible, composed of the sixty-six seriess of the Old and New Testaments, is inspired, authoritative, and infallible in its original manuscripts. It is, therefore, the only complete and final authority in faith and life.

For followers of Jesus, the Bible is not merely a decoration on the shelf. It holds the key to understanding God’s will and it has the power to expose our bad thinking (Hebrews 4:12). More than that, it makes a practical impact on our daily lives:

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.

Let’s take a closer look at this passage. First, the Bible teaches us what’s true; when it comes to beliefs or behaviors, God’s Word gets the final word. Second, scripture rebukes us when we start falling for lies or the subtle half-truths of our culture. Third, the Bible cares enough to correct us when we’re wrong – instead of leaving us confused or abandoned. And fourth, scripture trains us to do what is right, helping us to replace our old habits with new ones. The power behind all of this transforming work is God himself, because “God uses it to prepare and equip his people.” 

When it comes to reading scripture, it’s easy to pick and choose what we want to accept or reject. These days, we can even find preachers who will teach what our itching ears want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3). Many Christians claim to follow Jesus as Lord of their lives while ignoring his teachings. Jesus called out this kind of hypocrisy:

Luke 6:46-48 So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say? I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built.

It’s tempting to accept Jesus as Savior of our lives while rejecting him as Lord. That’s why God has given us one more key to victory in our pursuit of genuine faith.

God’s People 

As Christians, we don’t just need a new power source (God’s Spirit) and a new way to think (God’s Word), we also need a new community (God’s people). Other believers help us to live out our calling as Christians – especially when we fail to honor God in our daily lives.

Paul told us in Galatians 5 about the battle between our sinful nature and the Spirit. In the next lesson he told us how God’s people should respond when someone loses that battle and let’s the flesh win out over the Spirit:

Galatians 6:1-2 Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.

Nobody’s perfect. In one way or another, we’ll all occasionally lose that battle between our two natures. The biblical command is clear: the church should respond “gently and humbly.” God’s people exist because of vertical grace, the forgiveness offered through Jesus. In the church, that grace becomes horizontal – Christians offering forgiveness to each other whenever it’s needed.

But the passage above shows us that the response in a biblically functioning community is not just about forgiveness; it’s also about correction. We all need other believers to hold us accountable and help us get back on the “right path” when we fail to honor God. This is why we need God’s people in our lives if we want to truly experience victorious Christian lives.

Go ahead and read 2 Peter 1:3 again. By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life: his Spirit, his Word, and his people. This means we live every day as Christians the same way we got started on day one: by God’s grace.