From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

The Gospel message is, "Come as you are" - as a sinner in need of salvation in Christ. But postmodern Evangelicalism's message far too often is, "Stay as you are" - it's okay to profess Christ but remain in your sins.

What It Means to Walk Worthy of the Lord

In Colossians 1:9-10, Paul says that he prays "that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him."

What does it mean to fully please the Lord? An expanded translation of verse ten would read like this: "that you may continually conduct and occupy your life, and continually regulate your behavior, in a way that is suitable and fitting and worthy of the One who is your Lord, with the goal constantly before you of fully pleasing Him." Here we see three things -

First of all, walking worthy of the Lord means understanding what pleases Him - that is, His will. "Be filled with (that is, controlled by) the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." That is how you will understand what pleases the Lord, by getting ever deeper into His Word, and thus understanding His will, what glorifies Him.

Secondly, walking worthy of the Lord means understanding who He is. Paul goes into considerable depth on that subject in Colossians chapter one. It is a rich and comprehensive picture of who the Lord Jesus Christ is, what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will do in the future. Desiring to fully please Him is thoroughly bound up in an understanding of who He is, that He is the Sovereign Creator and God of the Universe, and that you belong to Him and not to yourself.

Thirdly, walking worthy of the Lord means understanding the imperative that governs your relationship with Him as Saviour and Lord. It is a slap in the face of Christ to say that He is your Lord and Savior, but live like the devil. We are to "walk worthy of the Lord." The word translated "worthy" literally means, "of equal weight." The idea is that we as Christians are to live a life that is as much like the life of the Lord Jesus Christ as we possibly can. God says, "Be holy, because I am holy." That is the standard. First Peter chapter one, beginning at verse thirteen, also calls this to our minds:

"Therefore gird up the loins of your mind [in other words, get your mind ready for action], be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, 'Be holy, for I am holy.' And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."

The Sad Moral State of Today's Church

"Be holy, as I am holy." Dear friends, this is a serious problem in the church today. That kind of holiness is sorely lacking among people who call themselves born-again Christians today. According to a recent survey, one out of every five people who are living together with someone of the opposite sex outside of marriage, are members of an Evangelical church. One large church that is built on the Purpose-Driven Church model did a survey and found out that 25% of the church's singles, 38% of its single parents, and 41% of its divorced members admitted to having had a sexual relationship with someone outside of marriage, within the last 6 months. That is the sad moral state of much of the Evangelical church today. Those kinds of statistics are not unusual, they are being found to be true over and over again.

"Come as You Are" Doesn't Mean "Stay As You Are"

Dear friends, the problem is that far too many Evangelical churches today are telling people to "come as you are" when what they really mean is "stay as you are." Stay in your sins. That's okay. We don't want to get too convicting here, we don't want you to feel uncomfortable, so we won't preach against sin. We just want you to come here and feel good, and go out feeling even better.

The postmodern Evangelical church is affirming people in their sins, rather than confronting them, from Scripture, with their need for repentance and faith in Christ. Much of the Evangelical church today isn't telling people that the Bible teaches that those who are truly born from above may not be perfect people, but if you are truly saved, your life and your behavior will change as a result of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And if your life doesn't change, if you're still living in your sins, it's a strong indicator that you aren't truly a Christian, and you need to go back and understand the Gospel and get right with God.

"Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit." (1 Thessalonians 4:1-8)

"Only let your conduct be worthy of the Gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God." (Philippians 1:27-28)

May what Paul said of the Thessalonians be true of each of us individually, and of His church as a body:

"You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe; as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the Word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe." (1 Thessalonians 2:10-13)

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