CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE
REVELATION 1:9 – I, John, your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Through the Holy Spirit, the apostle John shows us several clear marks of true Christian life. We must see them, learn them, and live them out every day. The first mark is this: All True Christians Are Brothers and Sisters in One Family.
When John wrote “your brother,” he was not speaking as a great apostle who stood above others. He was speaking as a member of the same family. Every person who truly believes in the Lord Jesus Christ belongs to the family of God. Jesus is the firstborn among many brothers and sisters (Romans 8:29). God Himself is our Father, and all believers are His children. In God’s family there is no higher class and no lower class. All stand equal before Him (Galatians 3:28).
In the world, people create classes. They do this because of pride, greed for power, greed for position, dishonesty, and the desire to control others. But in the church that is truly led by the Holy Spirit, no such classes exist. There may be different tasks and different gifts, but there is never a higher or lower rank of people. The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit gives different gifts and different roles for the good of the whole church, not to make some people more important than others (1 Corinthians 12:4-7). Even the highest office, that of an apostle, does not make a person greater than his brothers and sisters. John, though an apostle, gladly called himself a brother. In this he followed the teaching of the Holy Spirit and the example of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus taught that whoever wants to be great in God’s kingdom must become the servant of all (Matthew 23:11). Jesus Himself, though He was equal with God, left the glory of heaven, took the place of a servant, and gave His life for us (Philippians 2:5-8). The holy angels do the same. Though they are mighty and glorious, they gladly serve God’s saved children because they share the same humble mind of Christ (Hebrews 1:14). Anyone who thinks that angels are only lowly servants who will wait on believers forever has not understood the heart of Christ or the teaching of the Bible. Such thinking comes from human ideas about masters and servants, not from Scripture. It imagines heaven as a place with the same proud ranks that we see on earth. This wrong way of thinking has hurt the church greatly. It has caused leaders to fight for position and power. It has turned some churches into earthly organizations instead of the family of God.
When church leaders quarrel and struggle for higher places, it shows they have not been born again by the Spirit. They still think with earthly, selfish wisdom (James 3:15-17). Because they do not understand the brotherly love and humility of Christ, their teaching leads people onto a path that looks right but ends in spiritual death (Proverbs 14:12). Therefore, every church must keep teaching and keep living this truth: All believers are brothers and sisters. Leaders must serve with greater humility, not with greater pride. Members must treat one another as true family, not as higher and lower ranks. Only then will the church be different from the world. Only then will the world see the love of God and the beauty of heaven in the way we treat one another.
May the Holy Spirit help every church and every believer return to this simple, powerful truth: in Christ we are all brothers and sisters, no more, no less.
QUOTED BIBLE VERSES:
JOHN 13: 5 – After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him.
JOHN 13: 12-15 – 12 When He had finished washing their feet, He put on His clothes and returned to His place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” He asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
JOHN 17: 20-21 – “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
1CORINTHIANS 12: 4 – There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.
1CORINTHIANS 12: 28 – And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues.
GALATIANS 3: 28 – There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
PHILIPPIANS 2: 3-8 – Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross!
HEBREWS 1: 14 – Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?
JAMES 3: 15-17 – Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. 17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.