Living for the Lord??

Are you living for the Lord?  Based on what I have seen, "living for the Lord" is followed up with a list of accomplishments to prove the claim: "He goes to Church, he's living for the Lord."  "She teaches Sunday School and he is the pastor, they are living for the Lord."  "I have a great kid, she is really living for the Lord."  In other words - "living for the Lord" means doing lots of things for Jesus.  Oh - is that not wonderful, Jesus is just so lucky to have us doing so much for Him."  It seems that living for the Lord, for the most part is all about what we do.


But that really is not what it means to live for the Lord.  Paul clears things us when he says in Philippians 1:21, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."  This verse is quoted often, and without fail, the application is understood to be - "so you need to live for Jesus, that is what Paul did."


But please take very careful note of what Paul actually said: He DID NOT say, "for me to live is to live for the Lord."  For Paul - life is not living for Jesus, life is just simply Jesus!  Did you get that, it deserves repeating and understanding - for Paul - life IS Jesus!  Paul said in Galatians, "I am crucified with Christ: never-the-less I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me."


To LIVE IS Christ!  We do not just live to do nice things for Jesus, we do not even live to be sold out to Jesus.  Frankly we have nothing to "sell out!"  I Corinthians 6:20 says that we are not our own, rather we have been purchased by Christ.  That is the New Testament, Gospel reality, "No longer I - - but Christ!"  This encompasses all of life, not just a couple nice things we can do for Jesus - we belong to Him in our entirety!