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

Ses s i on 6: Cu l t i vat i ng Our Commun i t y : The “Corporate” Di sc i p l i nes 283

(3) 1 Pet. 1.22 – Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.

5. Our individual responsibility in discerning God’s will is simple but profound: immediate, uncontested obedience to his plain instruction .

a. Our obedience must be immediate , Ps. 40.6-8 – Sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. [7] Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: [8] I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”

b. Our obedience must be unconditional , John 4.34 – Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”

c. Our obedience must be thorough , Ps. 119.1-2 – Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord! [2] Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart.

d. He leads us through the channels of grace afforded to us through our counselors.

C. The Corporate Dimensions: as slaves to Christ we are to submit to one another in the fear of Christ.

1. Spirituality in the body of Christ is explicitly communal, that is, we discover the will and purpose of our lives in the midst of the people of God.