All our earthly possessions become useless once we die. Our spiritual condition thereafter becomes our eternal reality. That is why the Lord wants us to live our earthly lives expressing a positive eternal condition. Hence, He asked us to live as salt of the earth and light of the world.
At another place in the book of Ephesians, Paul, writing about the mercy and love of God went forward to show us the end-result of the work of salvation that Jesus Christ did for us:
Ephesians 2: 4 – 7 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
In other words, the reason why Jesus has called us out is to “show the exceeding riches of His grace”. It is this radiation of the exceeding riches of His grace that the Lord refers to as being fruitful in John 15: 1 – 5. It is living on earth as if we are already in heaven. The more we manifest Christlikeness, the more fruitful we are for the kingdom, and the Lord shall prune us to bear even more fruit. But if we do not show Christ to the world, He would count us as unfruitful branches, and He may cut us off.
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It was that same thing – God’s purpose for calling us out – that Peter the Apostle was referring to when he wrote to the saints of the dispersion. Peter said to them:
1 Peter 2:9-10 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
We are a peculiar people. Jesus Christ has called us out of the world; we are now of a different stock. His objective for doing so is that we may show forth the praises of our God; that we may radiate His light to a dark and dying world. Therefore, we cannot be pursuing the same old objectives; living in sin and pleasing self. We need to be manifesting the same old nature that makes no longer exist. And the Lord asks us to live true to our new nature. We must always remember (or, never forget) that we have been called out to bring glory to Jesus Christ, and to the kingdom of God.
TO BE CONTINUED
and then