Hi everyone, it’s Mick here and welcome to Friday’s Podcast and thanks for staying the course this week – it’s been so good to share these Bible reflections with you.  Slightly different podcasts in this first week of 2020 with a focus on our vision for this year – ‘Join Us for the Better Life’. Back to our usual rhythms next week as Liam begins reflections on Philippians. Tune in, it’s going to be great!

On Monday we considered what this Better Life is as we reflected on the Lord’s words in the Great Sermon – ‘steep your life in God…’. Tuesday to Thursday the implications of this truth in how we use our time, engage with our work and express God’s love in our daily lives. Today, a longer reflection on the values that shape our lives as followers of Jesus.

REFLECTION:

Values are important – they are the principles or standards of behaviour that shape our lives. They define what is important to you and how you live your life. As Christians, our values are defined and shaped by Jesus Christ and are expressed daily in living out his Better Life. It’s a whole new value system he offers, a whole new way of life!

The New Testament constantly reminds us of this new value system we live by as disciples – it says, this is the old life with its values and here are the new values of the Better Life of God. Read Paul’s letters and you will see this contrast practically everywhere between the old and the new; you once lived this way, and now you live another way; your life was once shaped by the standards of the world and is now shaped by the values of God’s Kingdom. The city of Ephesus was the most important city of its time; an exciting, vibrant, cosmopolitan place yet pagan in its culture. This is where Paul made his base for two years and planted a small Christian community that would change the whole region. In his letter to this church he says this ‘we were once in darkness but now are the light of the Lord’. In that same letter this new value system is summed up so well.

Ephesians 2:19-22 MSG

You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all— irrespective of how we got here— in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day— a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.

 So, as Christians, we are part of something new God is building – a new Kingdom with Jesus as its Lord, a new community built on Godly values – values which set us apart from those of the world. What are these values, these standards, these principles that now shape our lives as we follow Jesus? If you are part of the STC family, we covered many of these values in our Grow Project last year; kindness, generosity, hospitality, honesty, loyalty, honour, commitment, forgiveness, trust, justice, faith, hope, love … the list goes on.

Here is one way of summarising our core Christian values; as disciples of Jesus we endeavour to live under God a life of Simplicity, Purity and Accountability. A Simple life based on giving not getting; a Pure life with Godly disciplines defining what we watch, say and do; an Accountable life both to God and to others. My life is no longer my own if Jesus is Lord of my life.

Does it really matter that the values of our personal lives are reflected in the “public square”?  That is, in our jobs, with our colleagues, with our friends and neighbours, etc.  many would say no – they are private and for Sunday only! This is the challenging call of the life of a disciple of Jesus because his life had ...