Jesus Christ is worthy of all our praise and honor. The Lord Jesus is worthy of our praise and honor, because He is God. Jesus Christ is worthy or our praise and honor, because He humbled Himself and left His home in glory to come to this world of sin. The Lord then lived a perfect life for us that we could not live, and He died to pay for the punishment of our sins. As a result Philippians 2:9-11 tells us that God, the Father, "exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Someday every knee will bow before the Lord. Someday every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of Lords and is worthy of praise and honor. Even those who reject Christ now will someday acknowledge Him as Lord. When the Lord returns to this earth every knee will bow to Him, but then it will be too late for those who have previously rejected our Lord. Therefore, it is God's will and design that we passionately pursue our love relationship with the Lord now. It is God's will and design that we seek to bring praise and glory to the Lord Jesus now with our lives. It is God's will and design that the purpose of our lives be centered in the Lord Jesus and that we seek to serve and worship Him in all we do and say.
The Lord Jesus has given us an incomparable and awesome example of obedience and loving servanthood through His life. In fact, He laid down His very life for us! We now belong to the Lord. Therefore, we need to live our lives in continual praise to the Lord Jesus for His salvation. We need to live our lives for His glory. Philippians 2:12b-13 says, "work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose."
This passage is not talking about some kind of works salvation or righteousness. We are sinful and can do nothing to earn or add to our salvation. Our salvation is all of grace and a gift of God. Because the Lord Jesus has purchased our salvation by His blood and the Holy Spirit now lives in our hearts, however, we need to show that we are children of God by our lives. We need to "work out" in our lives what the Holy Spirit has worked into our hearts. As redeemed children of God we need to live for God's glory. This must become our passion and purpose for living.
As we cannot earn or contribute to our salvation by any merit on our part, so we even now can not live for the Lord without the Holy Spirit's help. We must choose to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in our hearts, however. We must choose to avail ourselves of His strength and must seek to live holy lives. We must choose with the Holy Spirit's help to express glory to our Lord through our lives and to grow in spiritual maturity. This takes effort and maturity on our parts, but we must seek our Lord's glory out of our thankful response to His grace.
We must do all we can to live our lives in gratitude for what the Lord has done for us in making us His children. We must always seek to live for the Lord's glory and must seek to live in the center of His will. We must not ever be discontented with God's will for our lives or compare it with the life circumstances of others. Instead Philippians 2:15 says our lives must be "blameless and pure" before the Lord. We must truly live as "children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation." In fact we must "shine like stars in the universe."
Our lives must demonstrate unmixed and wholehearted devotion for the glory and praise of God and for doing God's will. Our lives as children of God must be in sharp contrast to the people of the world around us. We must be like bright stars shinning in the darkness of this world for God's glory! May Christ's glory and praise be our passion and purpose for living!
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