Christ Above All

How important is your relationship with Christ to you? 

Do you prize Him above everything else in this world? Is He the center of your life personally?Could we say "I don't care what I lose in this life, even if it is my own life, because Christ is all that matters to me"? 

Paul truly prized Christ above all else in his life, "What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things." (Philippians 3:8) 

Right before this verse Paul said how he had more reason to boast in his flesh than anyone. He said he was so "righteous", yet he found all that he had to be loss compared to knowing Christ. 

I am just realizing how important our relationship with Christ really is. I am realizing how all the people that I know here on earth are only temporary. All the relationships, all the "things" that I have here(and that is everything). There is a purpose for those relationships though. And that is what I talked about in the last post. How we admonish and teach one another to build up each others' faith. 

The people in our lives are here to lift us up and hold us accountable in our relationship with Christ to help us become closer to Him. And we do the same for others. This is why it is so important not to "love the world or anything in the world" (1 John 2:15). 

Christ is everything. Our personal relationship with Him is all that matters when it comes down to it all. "I consider everything a loss compared to knowing Christ". Everything. 

It is when we begin to realize the temporariness of all that is here in this world and the importance of our personal relationship with Christ that we "forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead... the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus" (Philip 3:14)

John Piper says it well, "Whenever something is of tremendous value to you, and you cherish its beauty or power or uniqueness, you want to draw other's attention to it and waken in them the same joy. That is why Paul's all-consuming goal in life was for Christ to be magnified. Christ was of infinite value to Paul, and so Paul longed for others to see and savor this value. That is what it means to magnify Christ-to show the magnitude of his value."

We Proclaim Him

Hey guys so I felt led to share this passage with you today.

Colossians 1:28 "We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ."

Now there is a lot to get out of this one sentence, but I do believe that this verse displays very well our purpose here on earth. 

"We proclaim him [Christ]" But how do we proclaim him? 

"admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom" 

Okay. What does that mean? Well let's look at some other scripture to get a better understanding. 

First, we know that to teach and admonish means to tell others about Jesus and the gospel and hold them accountable for what they learn. But how do we do this the way Jesus would have done it? What does it mean to teach with all wisdom? 

James 3:17 says, "The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere." 

Wow! That is a lot! No wonder it says, "Blessed is the man who finds wisdom... for she is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her... her ways are pleasant ways and all her paths are peace." (Proverbs 3:13) 

Man okay so we know that we must teach with wisdom; that is very important. And then we cannot miss "admonish and teach everyone". Now that is a big deal because this does not mean just proclaim Christ to the believers, but he is saying to proclaim Christ to the believers and the non believers. 

And by doing this "we may present everyone perfect in Christ". Perfect? Yes. If we look at verse 22 it says, "he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish". 

Perfect.

But only "if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel". 

Are we teaching and admonishing believers and non believers as we go through our walk with Christ? Are we proclaiming him? Are we helping on another build up each other's faith daily? What do you guys think? Does this passage describe the path of your life?