The best sermon!

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(Charles Naylor)

" He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." 1 John 2:6

We must pattern our lives after our Lord, and follow in the way which He trod.

God's will for His people, is that they set before the world a worthy example of Christian character.

A blameless character is the best sermon!

In all our relations with others, we should manifest a sweet temper, kindness, meekness, gentleness, forbearance, patience, reasonableness, cheerfulness, magnanimity and all the other things that go to make up Christian character.

In our lives we should be examples of holiness, consistency and moderation. We should be free from worldliness, ostentation, and the vanities that are ruining the world. We should not be not of the world . . .

  in the tenor of our lives,

  in the motives that move us,

  in the purposes that actuate us.

God's will for His people regarding . . .

  the vanities of this world,

  the desires that have their root in worldliness,

  and the sinful customs of the world,

is that we do not imbibe them.

Jesus said of His own, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." He has chosen us out of the world. Un-worldliness is a characteristic of true Christianity, and is found in all genuine believers.

The multitude of worldly professors who call themselves by Christ's name, but who, in their lives, and in the worldliness of their hearts, deny Him--are not Christians at all. They are Christians in name only. Their religion is only a veneer that covers a heart of sin. They are actuated by the spirit of the world, and they love the things of the world.

To be a true Christian, means to be severed in spirit . . .

 from the vanities of the world,

 from the pride, fashion, display and pretense of the world,

 from the world's love of pomp and power, and its hypocritical pretensions.

We must strive to be separated from the spirit, desires, aspirations, and hopes of this world--as really and as truly as Jesus was.

We must desire to live out in the life, those things that definitely mark one as having his hopes set on something higher, his aspirations set on something nobler, and his interests aimed at something greater and more lasting than . . .

  the perishable things of the world,

  the popular opinions of the world,

  the sinful customs of the world,

  the fashions and frivolities of the world, and

  the pleasures and amusements of the world.

" But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:15-16

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