Christian Life

The concepts presented in Christian Life are a most desirable state, although it is one that few Christians reach. Are you happy in the things you allow or disallow yourself? Or are you continually swinging from acceptance to accusation, from pleasure to disgust, from liking your lifestyle to despising it?

Do you live comfortably and pleasantly with yourself, your neighbour, and your God; or are you haunted by an uneasy sense of disharmony, of being unsure of yourself, not knowing what you should approve or disapprove, nor how you should relate to the world and the things that are in it? Can you eat, drink, love, laugh, cry, work, play, with contentment and peace, or is your conscience often unsettled, plagued with guilt, restless and troublesome? Do you love yourself or loathe yourself?

The purpose of this book is to analyse the components of a true Christian lifestyle, to discover what factors enable the Christian to determine what is allowable, so that you may live without guilt, enjoying fully the happiness which is your God-given right.

Do you love yourself or loathe yourself?

The purpose of this book is to analyse the components of a true Christian lifestyle, to discover what factors enable the Christian to determine what is allowable, so that you may live without guilt, enjoying fully the happiness which is your God-given right.

The True Pattern

Scripture says that Christ is the example we should follow (1 Pe 2:21).  In practice, this means that you should not come under any control save that of Jesus as he is revealed to you by the Holy Spirit.

But there is a form in which Christ will show himself to you which will be different from his revelation of himself to me or to any other person in the world.

Of course, we all share many common things in our understanding of Christ; but because we are each one of us uniquely different, there is some part of the total beauty of Jesus that is visible only to your eyes or mine.  The four gospels demonstrate this.  How diverse is each writer’s view of the Lord! Each places emphasis on a different aspect of his character.  Each responds in a different way to the impact and influence of his personality.  Each forms a special vision of Christ.

They were free to be different, of course, because up to that time no ecclesiastical hierarchy had determined to a nicety how a proper Christian should think, talk, feel and act! Those strangulating taboos and strictures had not yet been formulated!

But now your deepest quest in life should be to discover Christ himself, in the way he chooses to reveal himself to you personally, and then to follow that example alone.

It must be conceded, of course, that young Christians, like infants, may need to cling to older and wiser saints and to submit to authority until they have developed a mature discretion of their own (1 Pe. 2:1-3; and cp.  He 5:11-14).  But the apron strings should be cut as soon as possible.

It seems to me that the role of a good pastor is to nurture the children of God to the point where they can stand by themselves, able to make their own free and responsible decisions about the purpose of God in their lives.

A pastor who keeps his people utterly dependent on him, or who reckons them safe only while they keep his rules, can hardly be said to have produced grown up saints.

This book is now also available as an ebook from Smashwords  Christian Life - Ebook version