Here’s a great challenge—and great goal! It’s to keep our minds and hearts focused on Jesus Christ!
Consider the following series of scriptures:
When I came to you, brothers, announcing the testimony of God to you . . . . I didn’t think it was a good idea to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:1-2).
This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and the One You have sent—Jesus Christ (John 17:3).
He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37).
I could, of course, add numerous other scriptures to this short list in order to demonstrate that we should often focus on Jesus Christ.
According to Jesus, this singular approach is the key to living in a manner that is worthy of our calling: “If your eye is good” (or “single” in the KJV) “your whole body will be full of light” (Matthew 6:22). In practice, it means that when we are focused on Jesus, there is little room for sin. The author of Hebrews put it this way: “Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus . . .” (Hebrews 12:1-2). This principle points to the fundamental weakness with legalism which causes us to focus more on ourselves than on Jesus.
Of course, this is a challenge for all of us! Our culture seems designed to draw our attention away from Jesus. There are many distractions, such as world events, terrorism, the present election cycle as well as materialism, sensualism, secularism—and the list goes on. Nevertheless, if we focus on Christ and renew our minds, we’ll respond positively Principle #4, page 1651, in my Life Essentials Study Bible:
To walk in God’s will, Jesus Christ must always be the central focus in our personal and corporate lives.
This principle comes from Paul’s letter to the Colossians that describes the centrality of Christ:
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation . . . . He is before all things and by Him all things hold together (Colossians 1:15, 17).
8 Comments on “The Ultimate Goal of a Christian”
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This lesson was paraphrased and given for other to deduce from it
HMM
GOD BLESS YOU
very good insight. keep up the good works for God’s glory.
Great article. You do identify the goal(s). The problem for me, as in most articles of this type, is they say ‘what,” not “how.” For example, in 1 Peter 1:5-7… “make every effort.” How? What techniques? Obviously prayer, Bible reading, but how else (e.g. how do was one cultivate self-discipline)? This would, I think, make a great article. Please let me know if someone writes it, or you have a response. BTW, it always helps to date the article and specify the author. Thank you. God bless you.
Your presentation on the goal of a christian is in my opinion truly biblical, being a christian in the right sense of the word is having already eternal life as a fact in a person’s life due to the promise of Christ in John 17:3 and Jesus will not lie, as a result, every christian is guaranteed of this entry into eternal life. I realized just now after having read your mention of bible verses ; Matt. 22:37, 1 Cor. 2: 1, 2, Heb. 12 : 1, 2 , it dawned on me that indeed these verses will continually remind me of a lifelong effort to demonstrate the genuine christian life and will truly be my goal in person (i took note of these verses in writing so i won’t forget) and i will do try to share with other christians that this be their goal as well. Demonstration of these verses in a christian life is rarely seen in christians especially in these times of worldliness and troubles, and your article just came out timely as reminder to go back to the word of God; the bible, particularly for christians who almost thought it is finished by just having received eternal life among themselves.
Great article…
Jesus is pushing Christians out of our comfort zones. The world as we know it is in trouble. It’s not getting any better. As we say in the government… all hands on deck. We need to get every born again believers get out from the 4 walls and take the church to the people. Our children are lost, men and women are lost. It’s our jobs as a Christian that once you have went through the test to know that you know. It’s now time to reach out to a dying world to let them know Jesus is real. Heaven and Hell is real. The Bible said go to the highways. Matthew 22
It’s Time… for all Christians to come together as 1 and take our rightful place back in the world. We know that there is a day set but we have to prepare people for the coming of Jesus Christ. It’s no more excuses and waiting for the lost to come to the church. Let the church go to the people. It’s Time…