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Be Christ. Do Christ. For Christ.

by Josh Stilwell | Published July 21, 2020

I once saw a t-shirt that I believe summarizes the worldview of this age. The t-shirt said,


Be you.
Do you.
For you.

“Be you” is the orthodoxy of this age; contemporary culture’s first and great commandment. It’s the definition of morality and the only truth that matters. Ironically, the doctrine of “be yourself” has arisen at a time when all absolute truth is being rejected leaving us with no possible objective way of defining what “yourself” is. So “be you” actually just amounts to blindly following whatever your depraved heart and animal instincts tell you to do at any given moment. So this credo that sounds very inspiring and empowering is actually demeaning and enslaving.


“Do you” is the orthopraxy of this age. Any action or behavior is justifiable provided that it is “authentic” and “true to yourself”. But again, we have nothing outside of ourselves that we can use to define those terms. So practically, this makes the individual god of his own life. According to contemporary morality, each person sits enthroned as the unquestionable, unchallengeable sovereign of his or her own life


“For you” is the orthopathy of this age; the highest and noblest goal. Self-idolatry is not only accepted in our society, it is praised as the ultimate good. Selfishness is not a vice, but a virtue. Pride is considered angelic, not demonic.


Those six little words summarize all that is wrong with our society. Next Sunday night, we are going to begin studying a biblical book that presents a very different worldview.


If I could summarize the book of Ephesians and put it onto a t-shirt, it would say,


Be Christ.
Do Christ.
For Christ.


Jesus died so that we could be something better than ourselves. Our identity is now in Him and not in ourselves. God’s grace means that you don’t have to “do you”. Through the merits of Christ, you can rise above your depraved heart and spend a life of meaning and purpose. And the mercies of God give us something to live for that is higher than ourselves.


Join us next Sunday evening as I introduce the beautiful book of Ephesians that will teach us about life in Christ; that will train us to be like Christ, behave like Christ, for Christ’s glory

4 Comments


  1. Andrew says:

    WOW! So true. Glad I took the time to read this, Josh. Thanks for sharing. Look forward to your message on Sunday. Really good points in here.

  2. Austin DeFord says:

    I really enjoyed reading this post from Pastor Stilwell. So grateful for his insightful teaching.

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