Values such as spirituality, loyalty, humility, compassion, honesty, kindness, integrity, excellence, and selflessness are certain qualities that every believer aspires to be like Christ (Ephesians 4:20-32). Indeed, employees of LIGHT Microfinance, Inc. can become ambassadors for Christ-like allowing God’s light to shine among co-workers and to its client program members. Indeed, God transforms believers into Christlikeness through the work of the Holy Spirit. Unbelievers can never be Christlike because it is only applicable to those who have a direct relationship with Christ Jesus.
Having that Christlike attitude happens through this process:
- There should be freedom from sin. Since Christ Jesus lived a sinless life, being Christ’s follower means you should not be a slave to sin. That’s what freedom from sin means! You will no longer be a slave to sin when you surrender your life to Christ Jesus. When you believe in your heart making Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you become a new creation and have been set free from the penalty of sin, including your fear of death, and your guilt that is condemning you (2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 8:1). You are no longer slave to sin because you are no longer bound to sin since the Holy Spirit convicts you when you are about to commit sin. You will be prompted not to commit sin because you are now being a slave to righteousness (John 16:8; Romans 6:6). The Scripture is clear that the Holy Spirit is at work for each believer having that renewed heart and providing guidance to be more Christlike every single day. Freedom from sin then is to be in Christ and free not to sin and desiring to live a righteous life. However, the struggle is still there while being still here on earth because of the remnants of sin from old nature. This is the reason why the Apostle Paul said that you need to continuously work for your salvation that is referring to your being faithful in obeying God’s teachings (Philippians 2:12), not because you are going to lose your salvation in Christ but simply means that without that total surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, no way that one can have a Christlike transformed life.
- The evidence of spiritual growth. Before your encounter with Christ, you have not yet experienced God’s grace and His love. You are immature in wisdom and knowledge of God. But after you have committed to trust and obey God in your life, it is just your desire to please Him by applying the learnings you got from His Word. You always wanted to grow in the knowledge of God and determined to live your life by His Word (Psalm 119:9-11; 2 Peter 3:18). Spiritual growth then can be manifested in your life, and you will always cling to Jesus no matter what with all your might. You will persevere for Christ’s sake! You’ll then attain habitually responding in Christlike character, growing to be more like Jesus. You will act toward others like how Jesus would. You are kind, tenderhearted, with a forgiving spirit, and there is humbleness as evidence of your spiritual maturity. The way how you want to serve God and others is now enveloped with the highest motivation known as Agape, that is God’s love in you and through you (1 Corinthians 13:13).
Christ’s followers have a sure futuristic hope to be with Jesus for eternity, therefore, aspire to live a life of purity to be more like Jesus. The goal of this “living a pure life” is to be Christlike. Since Jesus is pure, Christ’s followers seek to live like Christ. One day, this above process will be completed when Jesus returns because you will be seeing Him as He is. The promise of being fully Christlike in the future is a motivation among Christ’s followers, seeking purification because Jesus is pure (1 John 3:2-3).