May 20, 2022
What difference does it make if we live righteously? Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining us again today on the Follower of One podcast. I'm glad you're here. We do this podcast as Follower of One, which is an online community designed to help marketplace Christians integrate their faith into their work full time. Today I'm settling on one Bible verse from Romans 3:10, "as it is written, none is righteous. No, not one."
What difference does it make to us that no one is righteous? Paul's actually talking to the Jews and he's explaining to the Jews or to the Romans rather. And he's explaining to the Romans and the Jewish people that are among them that there is no preference. There's no longer Jews that have an advantage or Gentiles that have an advantage. There's also no righteous people. People who are better by class. He's breaking down all the class rules here. There's not a class of people who are righteous.
"None is righteous. No, not one." And I think the ramifications for us and the reminder for me today is even though I practice all of these things, , when I do practice them and there are days when I don't practice this as well as I'd like. Even though I might try and work and know, even though I may feel qualified because I'm saved or something else like that. My righteousness doesn't come from me. It doesn't come from any of my actions. I can't do anything to become righteous. Christ made me righteous. And he did that. And the ramifications for me in this particular verse is not to take this personally, not to take this as something that's to my credit.
It's so easy for me to judge other people against something that is my standard of living. I'm tempted by media and everything else to criticize or to judge other people. But since none of us deserves any grace or mercy from God, then none of us can look down our noses at anyone else. And yes, I'm capable of doing that, but I don't want to, I hope you understand. I'm not the after picture here. I've always said that before. I'm the before picture, we're all working on our faith. Today, our challenge I believe is to remember that "none is righteous. No, not one."
Let's live with mercy and grace and empathy in our world. Let's do things and serve other people in such a way that they might ask us, why are you doing this? And then we get to tell them we get to speak for ourselves. Remember we talk about five daily activities at Follower of One. Pray, appreciate others, know what you believe, serve others and speak for yourself. Today, I want to challenge you to try all five of those activities. Ask God to put you to work in his kingdom. But remember we didn't do anything to earn this. Jesus saved us and he will use us if we can focus and concentrate on him. And if we can remember that we didn't earn this, he provided it.
Thanks for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for making a difference in your workplace. You're part of God's strategy to show the world what a Christ follower looks. Let's not make Christ followers look any worse than they do today. Let's go into our workplaces and live in such a way that other people might ask us, why are you doing this? And then we get to tell them about who we follow.
Thanks very much for following us on the podcast and for taking part in a marketplace ministry. And why not join us on the next marketplace mission trip. If you go to https://community.followerofone.org, and create a profile in our online community. You'll get invited on the next marketplace mission trip.
Thanks very much.