A Compelling Testimony: Maintaining a Disciplined Walk, Christlike Character, and Godly Relationships as God's Servant

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A Compe l l i ng Tes t imony

5. Do not abuse your freedom in Christ: just because you can does not mean that you should put certain kinds of things into your consciousness, 1 Pet. 2.16 – Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.

6. Engage in open dialogue with others by cultivating the four-step process: suspend judgment on issues until you get the facts straight, 1 Thess. 5.21.

7. Find partners and/or groups and read and discuss the major issues of concern to you and those of the day. Seek to explore these issues using clear open debate and discussion.

8. Don’t take disagreements personally! Godly, sincere, and capable saints can disagree on issues of mutual concern.

9. Learn to ask questions about all the things that you have come to take for granted, and see if your assumptions truly match your “automatic reactions” to things, John 7.24.

10. Embrace the biblical injunction that no matter be settled without two or three witnesses corroborating the claims. Demand that this be enforced in the body of Christ.

V. Principles and Implications of A Disciplined Life

We must be aware of how quickly we can latch onto this word or that and turn it into a law. The moment we do so we qualify for Jesus’ stern pronouncement against the Pharisees: “They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger” (Matt. 23.4). In these matters we need the words of the apostle Paul embedded in our minds: “We deal not in the letter but in the Spirit. The letter of the Law leads to the death of the soul; the Spirit of God alone can