The Divine Commandment of Life
The sermon emphasizes the importance of living a life of generosity, God-likeness, and supernatural character, as demonstrated by Jesus' command to love one another.
Oswald Chambers preaches on the exhortation from our Lord in Matthew 5:38-48 to be generous in behavior towards everyone, emphasizing the importance of not letting personal affections dictate our Christian life. He highlights the call to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect, showing God's love to others as we have received it. Chambers stresses that true Christian character is about reflecting God's likeness through divine characteristics, not just good deeds, and that the supernatural life in a believer should naturally manifest in everyday situations, showcasing God's grace at work.
Text
Our Lord's exhortation to us in Matthew 5:38-48 is to be generous in our behavior toward everyone. Beware of living according to your natural affections in your spiritual life. Everyone has natural affections-- some people we like and others we don't like. Yet we must never let those likes and dislikes rule our Christian life. "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another" (1 John 1:7), even those toward whom we have no affection.
The example our Lord gave us here is not that of a good person, or even of a good Christian, but of God Himself. "...be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." In other words, simply show to the other person what God has shown to you. And God will give you plenty of real life opportunities to prove whether or not you are "perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." Being a disciple means deliberately identifying yourself with God's interests in other people. Jesus says, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34-35).
The true expression of Christian character is not in good-doing, but in God-likeness. If the Spirit of God has transformed you within, you will exhibit divine characteristics in your life, not just good human characteristics. God's life in us expresses itself as God's life, not as human life trying to be godly. The secret of a Christian's life is that the supernatural becomes natural in him as a result of the grace of God, and the experience of this becomes evident in the practical, everyday details of life, not in times of intimate fellowship with God. And when we come in contact with things that create confusion and a flurry of activity, we find to our own amazement that we have the power to stay wonderfully poised even in the center of it all.
Sermon Outline
- I. The Divine Commandment of Life
- A. To be generous in behavior toward everyone
- B. To let our natural affections not rule our Christian life
- C. To show others what God has shown to us
- II. The Example of God
- A. To be perfect, just as our Father in heaven is perfect
- B. To deliberately identify ourselves with God's interests in others
- III. The True Expression of Christian Character
- A. Not in good-doing, but in God-likeness
- B. Exhibiting divine characteristics in our life
- C. The supernatural becoming natural in us through God's grace
Key Quotes
“The secret of a Christian's life is that the supernatural becomes natural in him as a result of the grace of God, and the experience of this becomes evident in the practical, everyday details of life, not in times of intimate fellowship with God.” — Oswald Chambers
“The true expression of Christian character is not in good-doing, but in God-likeness.” — Oswald Chambers
“Being a disciple means deliberately identifying yourself with God's interests in other people.” — Oswald Chambers
Application Points
- We should strive to treat everyone with kindness and respect, regardless of our natural affections towards them.
- We should allow God's life to express itself through us, demonstrating divine characteristics in our actions and behavior.
- We should deliberately identify ourselves with God's interests in others, showing them what God has shown to us.