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"Jesus Changes Everything!"
Christians Values are Pro-Family, Pro-Life, Pro-Freedom, and Pro-Love!
Christians hold certain values because, in addition to the fundamental tenet of being a disciple, or follower, of Jesus Christ, those values or ideals form the lifestyle of a faithful Believer in Jesus Christ—a Christian. Foundational beliefs in what God teaches, not personal philosophies, form the basis of Christian thought and behavior which are derived from God's Word—the Holy Bible.
There are many who claim Christian faith yet do not hold to historic, traditional Christian views. This may mean that such a person is not a Christian or is so immature in their faith that they don’t yet understand Biblical values. They may be new to the Christian faith and have yet to be fully introduced to a complete picture of the values and beliefs which are held by practicing Christians worldwide. Others who claim to have been Christian for many years have never developed their faith past the label “Christian” and are not truly practicing a Christian Faith, as much as simply wearing the brand name. For some, habitual sin has damaged or blinded their ability to discern God's will. Whatever the reasons for the discrepancies or inconsistencies in a "Christian's" behaviors, there are certain ideals, or values, which define Christian behavior and are found in the Bible--the primary source for understanding Christian values. To be clear, those values do not "save" Christians: Jesus alone saves through His substitutionary atonement for our sins, by His death on the cross. But, our grateful response in living out our Christian faith is to honor Christ by living a righteous life, by the power of His Holy Spirit.
Jesus explains reasons we are given the Holy Spirit to guide our lives:
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
(John 16:13-15)
Christians Build Their Lives on Four Foundations
Generally speaking, the Bible gives overarching principles rather than detailed mandates so that the principle can be properly applied in all circumstances. Among those foundational principles are the values or ideals of:
Family; Life; Freedom; and, Love.
Therefore, Biblically speaking, Christians are pro-Family, pro-Life, pro-Freedom, and pro-Love. These are not “pick-and-choose” menu items, but, they are an inseparable package of values which only work properly together in unison with God’s Spirit forming and guiding our lives as Christians. To adhere to one part but not another won’t work and isn’t Christian. God’s counsel is total and complete. Our Creator does not give us a choice which values we accept. He has revealed His character in the Scriptures and, God has complete authority and right to demand total commitment from us. God created everything good:
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
(James 1:17)
and,
“…and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God,
who created all things…”
(Ephesians 3:9)
Christians are pro-Family
God designed and created sexuality and family structure, as written in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible—Genesis. God, our eternal Creator, clearly states in Genesis 1:27 that he made only male and female:
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
(Genesis 1:26-27)
and,
"1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created."
(Genesis 5:1-2)
Jesus reiterated the original sexual and family design:
4 He answered, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate."
(Matthew 19:4-6)
A parallel passage is found in Mark 10:6-9.
The reason God can dictate our sexuality and family structure is because He made us:
“Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”
(Psalm 100:3)
And, it was Jesus who made all things:
"1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."
and,
"15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross."
(Colossians 1:15-20)
and,
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
(Revelation 4:11)
Since Creation, as God designed from the beginning,
Christians are pro-Family.
Christians are pro-Life
And, since Creation, life has been one of God's most miraculous achievements. Only after making people did God grant a blessing and a mandate for Adam and Eve for fruitfulness and dominion :
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth,
and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the
earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was
very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
(Genesis 1:28-31)
and, regarding the pre-born,
13 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; 16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.
(Psalm 139:13-16)
The Bible leaves no question about the importance and immense value God places on life,
including the life of the pre-born.
Christians are pro-Life.
Christians are pro-Freedom
In addition to adhering to God's created order of family and life, Christians are beneficiaries of, and advocates for, God’s plan of freedom. Whether a person is physically enslaved or a slave to sin, one of the purposes of God in Jesus Christ was to free each person from bondage. It is not incidental that Christ sets us free but, it is a primary purpose that people should be free:
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
(Galatians 5:1)
and,
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
(2 Corinthians 3:17)
and, Jesus proclaimed of Himself:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty [freedom] to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty [freedom] those who are oppressed...”
(Luke 4:18)
The Old Testament parallel passage, from which Jesus was quoting above, is found in Isaiah 61:1.
Christians are pro-Freedom.
Christians are pro-Love
Family, life, freedom and... Love! Love is what we do as Christians. Christians are all for true, Godly love (Greek verb form: ἀγαπάω, English-agapao; Greek noun form is ἀγάπη, agape). The world confuses physical attraction with love. Godly love thinks not of itself and self-serving pleasure, but, rather, real love is sacrificial and selfless. Love considers other's needs above one's own.
Jesus commanded his followers to love with God's love:
“34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love [ἀγαπάω, agapao] one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love [ἀγάπη, agape] for one another.”
(John 13:34-35)
and,
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love [ἀγαπάω, agapao] your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
(Matthew 5:43-45)
and,
“8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”
(1 Peter 4:8)
and,
29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Similar passages are found in Matthew 22:37-40 and in Luke 10:25-28. Furthermore, this command is found first in the Old Testament:
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." (Deuteronomy 6:5)
and,
“1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
(1 Corinthians 13:1-13)
Christians are pro-Love.
There are other values to which Christians hold--honesty, integrity, faith, hope, humility, service, self-sacrifice and more--but, these are four of the most foundational values or ideals of a true Christian:
Christians are pro-Family, pro-Life, pro-Freedom, and pro-Love.
To be otherwise is to not be truly Christian.