We Have A Specific Regimen For Becoming Skillful At Gospel Living
Let me begin by saying that I don’t consider myself a golfer. Anyone who has played with me (i.e. my brothers Blake, Ryan, and Joel) would wholeheartedly concur. Despite my low skill level I do understand something about the game. Especially as it relates to the work required to become better at it.
If you want to get your golf score down into the 90′s your task may be tough but it is easily managed. Unless you have absolutely no hand/eye coordination, a golfer who shoots in the 100′s can get his score down into the 90′s in a matter of weeks if he works hard and has a good instructor. Taking your score down to the next level is a completely different story. Unless you are unusually gifted, getting your golf score down from the 90′s to the 80′s or below consistently can take years or may never happen. What is it about the adjustment down from the 90′s that makes this transition so difficult? The answer is that going from the 90′s down to the 80′s means becoming more of a finesse kind of player. This kind of player must understand nuance, detail, and precision.
Living according to the gospel is much like that transition. You can be brought into the family of God in salvation but really learning to live gospel centered and in family with your brothers and sisters in Christ requires fine tuning. This fine tuning comes to us by and large through living as family with fellow believers which is why the body of Christ suffers from a lack of skillful, finesse, powerful Christians. There is no secret to being one of those it just requires following the plan that the Lord has laid out for us in His word. It is precisely when I get out of the habit of living that gospel centered, family life with other believers that I become more sloppy. My score , as it were, begins to slip back up into the 90′s and I loose my precision and focus and become wore worldly.
Hebrews 10:24-25 says:
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
That is how a believer becomes skillful at living according to the gospel. That is how we get our “score down”.
How about you? Are you getting more skilled at gospel living by doing life with other believers?
