A life that is devoted to following Christ wholly may be envisioned and experienced as a pursuit of the three-fold path of living a submitted, singular and sacrificed life. A singular life is the second of these three dimensions of a disciple of Jesus.
How are we to go about living this kind of life? The answer will always be found in Christ himself. He forms singularity in our life in much the same way as we are formed into followers who live submitted lives – through the shaping of an attitude of heart, the enhancement of an awareness of soul and the development of a practice of life.
In the first part of this series of articles, we reflected upon God’s work in shaping the disposition of love within our heart so that love for God that pervades every dimension of our life. By faith we pray each day for God to continue this work within us. As he does, we begin to experience what it means to love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength and all our mind. Our love for Christ begins to be the thread that runs throughout each thought, word and activity of our day. We begin to sense a connectedness throughout every facet of our life. God’s love becomes the motivating force for each moment.
In addition to shaping love as the attitude motivating our living a singular life, God is also at work enhancing within our souls an awareness of the presence of Christ in every moment of our life experiences. When Jesus was just about to return to his Father, he issued the Great Commission to his disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). His words are often recalled to challenge believers with the responsibility to evangelize the whole world, and this is indeed both the purpose and scope of Christ’s commission. But there is one part of the Great Commission that is frequently overlooked. It is found in the last phrase. There Jesus promises us that his presence will be with us now and throughout the end of this present age.
The follower of Christ is empowered to live a singular life – a life fully integrated into the life of Christ – a life of oneness and wholeness. This empowerment arises out of a growing conscious awareness of the presence of Christ in us and with us. Because of his presence, “we too can ‘walk even as he walked’ (1 John 2:6), ‘do as he has done’ (John 13:15), ‘love as he has loved’ (Eph. 5:2; John 13:34; 15:12), ‘forgive as he forgave’ (Col. 3:13), ‘have this mind, which was also in Christ Jesus’ (Phil. 2:5), and therefore we are able to follow the example he left us (1 Pet. 2:21), lay down our lives for the brethren as he did. (1 John 3:16) (Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship, 304).
An alertness of our soul to the presence of Christ with us will prompt us to recognize Christ in others. We will begin to see and hear Christ more and more in the act of service and the words of encouragement that his followers express to us and to others. We will begin to see Christ in “the least of these” – the marginalized people that we cross paths with in our day, and we will be prompted by his Spirit to reach out a offer of help and encouragement to them – a cup of cold water to a thirsty soul, a warm coat to a chilled body, an encouraging word to a heart heavy with burdens.
The believer who desires to live a singular life that follows Christ wholly will depend moment-by-moment upon the reality of Christ’s present presence within her, around her, and beside her. The follower’s prayer will ever be “set me in your presence forever.” (Psalm 41:12 ESV)
