SUNDAY LESSON, 1/30/22
THE CHURCH: TRANSFORMED LIVES
Romans 12:1-2 (selected passages)
We continue to study THE CHURCH from the perspective as to what the church should be and what it should accomplish for Christ in the 21st century.
Christ left His church on this earth for the sole purpose of saving the lost and transforming their lives into His likeness. A transformed life for Christ is not only seen in the way we love and serve people, but is also evident by our behavior, speech and attitude. Do we look like Jesus or look like the world? Do we act more like Jesus or act more like the world? When people look at us as Christians, do they see something wonderfully different about us or are we undistinguished from their worldly friends?
From our study of the Seven Churches of Asia this past summer, we learned that the glorified Christ was not happy (to say the least) with those churches who looked more like the world than Him. His admonition to those churches was always the same: REMEMBER the way it was when you first gave your life to Christ. REPENT (turn away) from any thought, any action or anything that has caused you to move farther from Him and closer to the world. RETURN to Him, even as the prodigal son returned to his Father seeking forgiveness and was lovingly accepted back home by the Father as if he had never left (Luke 15:11-32).
ROMANS 12:1-2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
