Our Inner Life
I love watching people. At a restaurant or any other public place, I enjoy sitting so I can see the people going past. I often wonder what kind of lives they’ve known.
In most cases, how we look on the outside and how we look on the inside are much related. A newspaper recently placed photos of two famous celebrities side by side. One was a hard living rock star of the 60’s and the other a world renowned actress who had taken care of her social and emotional life. The rock star looked at least 15 to 20 years older than the actress. They were in reality almost the same age.
For the Christian, looking after our “inner” life is not an option; it’s a command. In what we call the “Great Commission” Jesus said “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:20). A ‘disciple’ was an apprentice to a master. An apprentice was taught by the master in the master’s particular field of expertise, with a view to the apprentice becoming as much like their master as possible (Luke 6:40).
Every Christian is called to be an apprentice to Christ, just as the first disciples were. We are to model our lives on Christ, to learn from Him, and to become as much like Him as possible. This isn’t just one of our callings. This is our central calling. Nothing else we achieve in life counts higher in God’s eyes than our success here. Failure to be like Christ is ultimate failure. This modeling is intentional and in this life, unending. But the rewards for success are not only extraordinary but eternal.
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