How Must Christians Behave?

The central principle of godly Christian behavior is this:  you and I do not belong to
ourselves but to Jesus Christ.  We have been bought with the precious blood of Christ
to be the unique possession of Christ for the glory of God: 1Co 6:20 For ye are bought
with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
1Co 7:23 Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.

The gift of eternal life is the gift of the Spirit that takes possession of the purchased
people:  [1Pe 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a
peculiar (purchased) people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath
called you out of darkness into his marvelous light....]

Because they belong to Christ He sends the Holy Spirit to work in them both to will
and to do of God's pleasure--Eph. 2:8-10 and Phil. 2:3. [beginning with the very faith
by which they lay hold on Christ for justification, taking them for His own, teaching
them to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world.] 

These works do not make anyone the people of God, but are worked in them by the
Spirit because they are the possession of Christ.  As many as are thus led by the Holy
Spirit are revealed to be the sons of God--Romans 8:13-15 and Romans 6:1-4.  If they
do not have the Spirit, they do not belong to Christ. Romans 8:8,9.

Because Christ has purchased us, body and soul, our bodies are to be offered up to God
as living sacrifices and are to be used in faith for God's glory and not for our own
desires: Romans 12:1,2. 

My feet are to run in obedience; my eyes to look for ways to show love; my ears to
hear the pleas for mercy and grace, etc.  Even my hands to offer up a cup of cold water
to the thirsty; my tongue to speak the truth.

Paul has broken it down further in this way:  Titus 2:11, 12 "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...."

The grace that saves does not teach us that we have the right to do as we please, but
teaches us to live soberly, righteously [justly], and godly in the present world.

Soberly means you are not to be drunk on yourself, intoxicated with your own pride
and your own selfishness and stubbornness--seeking your own will and your
own pleasure and self esteem.  Ro 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to
every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to
think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of
faith.

Righteously, means justly.  We are to treat other people right in terms of the law of
God: not lying, rebelling, stealing, fornicating and committing adultery, slandering, hating
and murdering. The law cannot condemn the justified to hell, but it does condemn their
unrighteous behavior and brings a Father's wrath and chastening upon transgressors. The
light of Christ does not teach the works of darkness and those who walk in them are
deceiving themselves according to 1John 1:5-9

Godly.  We seek the glory of God and take our life from Him alone through Jesus
Christ as He has appointed.  We are to think His thoughts from Scripture, seek His
glory alone, and give thanks to Him for all things, and call upon Him in the day of
trouble and not look to men and the world for our satisfaction and joy.  He is the cause
and Lord of all things and we are to praise Him and thank Him for everything.

The instrument that God has given us for this sober, righteous, godly life is our body. 
Christianity is not only a system of ideas and thoughts but a system of right behavior
that has a biblical idea of self, of others, and of God. 

We are not saved because of what we do in our bodies, but because Christ gave His
flesh and blood to purchase us.  The offering up of our bodies is a bloodless offering, a
living sacrifice, of thanksgiving to God our Lord.   Amen and Amen.  May it always be
so with us.

1 Peter 1: 18  Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible
things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation [way of life] received by
tradition from your fathers;  19  But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot....