Prayer:
Father, help us to follow Jesus.
I suppose the first two questions we need to ask are just what does Christian living mean and secondly how does it differ from ordinary living in the world around us?
Simply put, it means living as Christ would and/or showing Christ in our lives.
If you remember when we looked at the law of Moses we broke them down into two sections: being fair and honest with our neighbours and honouring God.
Christian living builds on these in a few subtle ways. So, how can we do it?
Whereas the scribes and Pharisees took the laws in specific ways (such as washing of cups, etc mentioned in Mark 7:4), Jesus took the actions of the law to the point where it could not be mistaken. Instead of just being fair and honest to our neighbours, he said we should love them. And the same applies to our relationship with God. We should not feel we are doing some good action because we have to, but that we want to.
Jesus taught in ways in which no one else did. His teachings were to influence the heart, not be something that could be repeated by rote. His most famous collection of teachings is known as the Sermon on the Mount and the slightly longer version can be read from Matthew chapters 5-7. Some of his teachings here are quite hard to follow, but they have an underlying message that doesn't leave any ambiguity. To those around us it may not make any sense at all.
So we'll now look at the second part of the question. It makes us different from those around us as we (should) help, and even love others. We are rich when we are poor, we are strong when we are weak. Paul mentions similar words in both his letters to the Corinthians. To the world it makes no sense at all. Again in Corinthians Paul says the many people simply won't understand (Read 1 Corinthians 1 :20-25). Those who do are very fortunate indeed.
Everything the world relies on (wealth, power, possessions) conflict with our life in Christ. When we are weak, we have to rely on God. When we are poor, the same thing applies. And so on.... Relying on God helps our faith. Instead of self-reliance we have God-reliance. Instead of selfishness, we have godliness.
Jesus gave his life to help people. Each day he taught people, he healed the sick, he showed people a better way to live their lives. To follow on from what Jesus did is real living.
What did Jesus say about our friends?
... and our enemies?
How can we follow Jesus?
How can we show Jesus in our lives?
Can you think of any other words which we can replace 'self' with 'God'?