But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light

…we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 

1 John 1:7

In this seemingly simple verse, the Lord is talking loudly about unity. In God’s church at large there is much umbrage, jealousy, backbiting and un-learnedness. Far more than God wants or needs within his people.

In this verse, the Lord is stating that if we are not in fellowship one with another, we do not have that light. The light brings fellowship and unity. That is one of its purposes. No darkness can exist in light. All shadows are gone, which means those spots and wrinkles of disunity disappear as we see our problem and resolve it quickly using our godly mind.

Now, Christians are all called to grow in the personal characteristics of Christ. When Christians are young in the Lord, they must learn the ways of Christ from the older and more experienced believers. This is the way of the Lord and his Church.

We will call these personal characteristics ‘the dignities of Christ’.

1. The dignity of a righteous builder, or builder of righteousness in his/her life, according to God’s plan and not our own. This might embody humility, diligence, vision, forgiveness, and commitment.

2. The dignity of a Godly king. Seeing we are all called to be kings and priests in the Kingdom of God, so we should be acting like them. This might embody the character qualities of soberness, graciousness, forgiveness, gentleness, self-control, favouring God above all others, a balanced lifestyle, and much learning from a judgement delivery perspective of God’s laws and civil practices. We must walk the walk first, so it is an overcoming of all the key issues that make us stumble in our walk.

3. The dignity of a Godly person. That is, human living or citizenship as God planned it. We live in a dysfunctional world, but that doesn’t mean we need to be dysfunctional. In this dignity we might expect to see humility, courage, honour, and a zeal for God’s way of life, as we stick out like a poppy in a field created by our lifestyle choices.

4. The dignity of heavenly mindedness.   This is where we seek the heavenly-minded purity of Christ, as we prepare to stand in the throne room with him. We would expect to find the qualities of responsibility, determination, and virtue, as we continually renew our minds with pureness.

These attributes are expected of us as we grow. Our lives should be ever-found changing to be more Christlike, and not standing still or going backwards.