General William Booth of the Salvation Army had ten rules for Christian living. They are: 1.) Consider your body as the temple of the Holy Spirit and treat it with reverence and care. 2.) Keep your mind active. Stimulate it with thoughts of others that lead to doing something. 3.) Take time to be holy with daily Bible reading and prayer. 4.) Support the church. Mingle with others. 5.) Cultivate the presence of God. He wants to enter your life and will as far as you let him. 6.) Take God into the details of your life. You naturally call upon Him in trouble and for the bigger things. 7.) Pray for this troubled war-threatened world and the leaders who hold the destinies of the various nations. 8.) Have a thankful spirit for the blessings of God -- country, home, friends, and numerous other blessings. 9.) Work as if everything depended upon work, and pray as if everything depended upon prayer. 10.) Think of death not as something to be dreaded, but as a great and new experience where loved ones are met and ambitions realized.
How we live in this world is of extreme importance. Of course the most important aspect of our life in this world is that we “must be born again.” Our salvation determines not only how we are going to live here, but also how and where we are going to spend eternity. But once we have established the condition of our soul, we must turn our attention to the condition of our life. God continually directs us to live for Him – through Him – in Him. And if we will apply the principles of Scripture to our lives, we will walk in such a way that will please Him. 1 Peter 1:15 tells us, “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation [conduct].”
And how are we to do that? He tells us in our verse above. “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good” – notice He does not direct this to Israel, to whom the prophet is speaking directly, but to man – all mankind – Jew and Gentile alike – “he hath showed thee, O man!” What did He show us? He showed us “What is good.” He expects goodness of us – then our goose is cooked, for He tells us in Psalm 14:1 and again in Romans 3:12, “There is none that doeth good,” and Paul adds, “No not one.” Then how can we comply with what God expects of us – how can we do what is good if “there is none that doeth good?” The answer is in Christ – through His strength – through His Spirit. In ourselves we don’t have the strength to do good, but in Him we have complete strength – we have complete righteousness – we have complete goodness. In Christ we can meet all the conditions of God for living a good, clean Christian life.
First, He says we must “do justly.” This speaks of our dealing with God and our dealing with man. In our dealing with God, we are to keep His commandments (Jn 14:5), we are to glorify Him (1 Co 16:20), we are to live holy (1 Pe 1:16), we are to walk carefully (Ep 5:15). This is what God’s justice demands. In our dealing with man, we are to be honest (Ro 12:17), we are to be true (Phi 4:8), we are to be pure (Js 1:27). Even in the Decalogue, the ten commandments, the first four commandments deal with our relationship to God, the next six, our relationship to man. Secondly, He says we must “love mercy.” In the Beatitudes, Christ said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy (Mt 5:7).” In His parable of the Good Samaritan who showed mercy, Christ commands that we “Go, and do thou likewise (Lu 10:37).” We are to love the mercy of God on us and then return that mercy upon our fellow man (Mt 18:35). Thirdly, He says we must “walk humbly with thy God.” Enoch walked with God through faith and it pleased God (He 11:5). And God hates pride and haughtiness, so our walk must be in humility (Pr 6:17; 16:18).
Quote – “Live with eternity’s values in view.” – Unknown
