The Bible teaches that God’s goal for His people is that they “become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). We are to daily “put on Christ” — His love and character — even as we put on our clothes (Romans 13:14). Being Christ-like is more than a religious profession or coming to services every week. It must be our total way of life. The Scriptures further teach that we are to carry the fragrance of Christ wherever we go — to unbelievers, the smell of death and to follow believers, the fragrance of life (2 Corinthians 2:14-16).
Our society is in desperate need of more Christ-like believers. The only thing many people will ever know about God is what they see of His radiance reflected in our daily lives.
O to be like Thee! Blessed Redeemer. This is my constant longing and prayer; gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures, Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
O to be like Thee! Full of compassion, loving, forgiving, tender and kind; helping the helpless, cheering the fainting, seeking the wandering sinner to find.
O to be like Thee! Lowly in spirit, holy and harmless, patient and brave; meekly enduring cruel reproaches, willing to suffer others to save.
O to be like Thee! While I am pleading, pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love; make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling; fit me for life and heaven above.
Chorus: O to be like Thee! O to be like Thee, Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art! Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness; stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
There are many Scriptures that tell us the very point this hymn makes such as Romans 8:29, which says, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.” Paul goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 2:2 that, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” That is the only thing that mattered to Paul … that we have put on Christ.
Also in his second letter to the Corinthians, he tells us in 3:18, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” Finally, in Titus 3:3-8, Paul tells this young man, “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.”
Being a Christian means we put to death the old man of sin and do our best to be like Christ in all ways. Are we willing to do that?
Joseph Lachausse