Centered in Christ

One of the most important characteristics of the early church was their life being centered in Christ. You cannot read the New Testament without encountering this reality over and over again.
 
When the believers were first called “Christians” it was done as an attack upon their way of life. Of course the word Christian basically means that those who it was directed at were Christ centered. Those who first applied it to the believers at Antioch did so for the purpose of mocking them.  Their lives so lived for and from Christ that those who did not believe scoffed at their passion for Christ. This is not a problem that exists among believers too much in our day.  

There is an absolute call to return to this fervor for Christ again. When I say the word fervor, I am not referring to some emotional high that goes up and down with the events of life. No I am referring to a daily, moment by moment fellowship with Christ that depends upon Him for all things.  

Since all things have been summed up in Christ, when we are in Him, we have all things. While all who believe are in Him, I am talking about the practical, daily outworking of this reality. When we truly believe, we have all of Him, not just a bit and a piece here and there.  

When you read the account of the early church, you get a glimpse of the practical reality of being centered in Christ. You see the outworking of the spirit through Christ’s body, giving and sharing Christ with one another, building one another up in love.  Their entire lives existed for Christ and Christ alone. Oh it included the many aspects of everyday life as Paul reveals in his letters to the churches. For example he speaks of work, marriage, children, loving one another, among many things.  

The point is that none of this existed outside of the person of Jesus Christ. It was showing forth who Christ is to the world. They saw Christ as the resurrected, living Lord and then responded to one another as a result of this reality. Christ was their truth, He was their reality. There was no other truth or reality.  

This is the most needed thing that any believer throughout history will ever need. Nothing can be right if a person isn’t living a life that is absolutely centered in the person of Jesus Christ. You can do all sorts of external things and look good to man, but you will never be able to enter fully into that great eternal purpose that has existed from before creation to live a live that is totally in Christ Himself.  

When you commit yourself and ask God for this privilege, He will more than answer your hearts request and bring into all that the Father has prepared for you before the foundation of the earth.