Don't just say it, live it
Martha Olawale
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” 1 John 1:1
Don’t just talk the talk; walk the walk. This is not directly from the scriptures but speaks from the heart of James 1:22, which says, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” If you can’t talk yourself into walking barefoot on a beach in Aruba when you are sitting in a house in Montana, you most definitely cannot talk yourself into being a Christian without actively walking as a Christian.
Christ modeled Heaven’s perfect example for us. He navigated complex, difficult scenarios and emerged unscathed at the other side of the curtain. He didn’t hide in a crowd, assuming an identity that did not match how God had called us to live. He responded to unkindness with kindness, sinfulness with righteousness, pretense with boldness, and death with life.
The life that God called us to is full and satisfying, and we can’t achieve it until we start living and minding how we live. While we are guaranteed safety in our redemption, we have to walk within the perimeters of that safety. Shouting commands without living the acts diminishes the efficacy of God’s word. If He says I can be holy, I must believe it to walk in it. While I will not attain it in this life, I walk daily, pick my cross up, and venture to walk in it with Jesus.
When John said, “That which was from the beginning,” he was talking about Jesus and proclaimed that living life as He did is possible as we fellowship with the Trinity. Although we walk in the big ocean of life with waves rising up and down around us, it’s vital for us to live in cognizance of who we are and the throne we represent.
To rightly affect our world how God wants us to, we have to embrace godliness as more than a principle and make it a lifestyle. It’s who we are and should be. To speak to what the world is doing wrong, we must first focus on what we need to do right. Many of us talk the talk without walking the walk. Our homes, children, work, actions, and reactions must reflect what the Bible says. We can’t just be saying it without doing it. We know that God’s truth will always be “the truth,” but if we stop believing it, we will stop living it, and if we don’t live it, we can’t teach it.
