Therefore be imitators of God, as dearly loved children. And walk in love, as the Messiah also loved us and gave Himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. But sexual immorality and any impurity or greed should not even be heard of among you, as is proper for saints. Coarse and foolish talking or crude joking are not suitable, but rather giving thanks. For know and recognize this: Every sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, who is an idolater, does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of the Messiah and of God.  Ephesians 5:1-5 HCSB

Our scripture passage today sums up how we should live as Christians. The first verse tells us that we should imitate God. This would mean that we would be perfect and without  sin. We know from Romans 3:23 that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But, we should strive for that kind of perfection. We should walk in love. If we really walked in love, it would be much easier for us to imitate God. Then Paul goes on to deal with things like sexual immorality and greed. He then talks about what comes out of our mouths or from our keyboards. The scariest part of our scripture is that he tells us that if we are sexually immoral, impure, greedy, or idolaters, we have no inheritance in the kingdom of God. Now, this is where we get into trouble. Many of us, I include myself, praise the Lord and love people on Sunday at church but become haters during the week. I spent years on that merry-go-round and it got me nothing but dizzy. I was hearing God’s word. I was reading God’s word, but I wasn’t living out God’s word.

I would be willing to say that there were those that I worked with and those that I considered my friends, that might not have even known that I claimed to be a Christian. We are told in James 1:22, that we are not only to hear God’s word but we are to do God’s word. You can listen to God’s word all day. You can hallelujah and amen till Christ returns, but if you don’t put those words into action, you are wasting your time and energy.

I spent many years as a half-baked, lukewarm Christian. I was hoping that I was doing just enough to get me into heaven, but in all honesty I’m not so sure I would have made the cut. I’m not sure that my name had been written into the Lamb’s book of life. I thank God that he allowed me to live long enough to get that done. I finally came to a point in my life where listening to God’s word was just not enough. I had to live it out. I was hungering for peace and joy in my life and I knew that I could only get those things from God.

So, if you are reading devotionals and Sunday school lessons and following along in your Bible with your preacher on Sunday but something still seems to be missing, ask yourself if you are truly doing God’s word? Are you imitating God to the best of your ability? Would your words and your actions lead others to Christ or draw them away? Are you walking the walk or merely talking the talk? You can literally hear God’s word until you are blue in the face, but my friend if you don’t live it out it is useless to you.

The world is a big mess and maybe we can’t change the world, but we can change ourselves and how we react to it. We can allow others to see Christ through us. I challenge you today to begin to not only read and study God’s word daily, but to live out what you have read each day. Allow living out God’s word to become a habit in your life. Embrace small, daily changes. You will be so glad you did. But, don’t take my word for it. Try it out for yourself.

Have a great day!