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All of us in the body of Christ do not have the same tasks, and we focus on doing the work of apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers and many others, as the Lord tells us to. Here, our work and therefore our outlook cannot be the same, and we must not compel others to follow us. But as children of God, we all have a common goal that we need to pursue in our heart at all times. Unfortunately, many of us are not even aware of this and therefore we end up neglecting this.

"Until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ" (Ep.4:13). Actually, the purpose of all the 'ministries' mentioned above is to lead everyone towards this goal (vv.11,12). God is also trying to cause everything that happens to us to make us like Jesus (Ro.8:28,29).

After we repent from our sins and receive forgiveness and acceptance from Jesus, if we have truly repented from our sins, our goal is to stop sinning and become more and more like Jesus. This is not really about the external things we do, which we may control for even wrong reasons such as the fear of being seen by others, but the choices we make in our heart every moment when we are tempted. Even if we imitate Christ externally, that is different from becoming like Him inside. This is a quest that must be going on inside us all the time which other people cannot be aware of, but which our Lord sees. This was the same quest that Paul also had (Php.3:7-11).

Why is it that we don't count all other things as loss and run after this? Two reasons. We may not know what pathetic condition we are in at present and we may not see what God has stored for us. Right now, while we are here in this life on earth, everything about us is corrupted with sin – what we do and say, how we think, make plans, our feelings, attitudes, values, etc. – and we are far from being Christlike. God paid the price of the blood of His Son in order to purchase us from the domain of darkness, given us the Holy Spirit to work in us, and still there is a whole lot of corruption that is affecting every part of our life. But since this is the hidden part of our life, we have a sinful tendency to be more concerned about what people notice about us.

To be faithful here is to be faithful in secret. Here we have the opportunity to be faithful even in the little things, and to receive the crown of life, which is nothing but the life of Christ in us. But even when we are serving God we have a tendency to neglect what is going on inside us and think about achievements, name, applause from people, etc. Aren't selfishness and self-centredness some of the big giants we need to be free from if we are to become like Christ who gave Himself for us?

If we love Jesus, and have come to know what He suffered to show His love for us, let us learn how to show Him our love in return (2Co.5:14,15).

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