I need help with Scripture on christ being the center of your life

there is a guy im going to be able to share christ with. He believes in christ and probably thinks hes christian, but christ has never been his center, and i know his faith isnt in christ. He loves doing good works, but at the same time he is growing more inlove with business and money. He has 2 bars, a restaurant and wants to make another one yet he hes having a hard time with managing this and is going into lots of stress when i want to show him that none of this will matter in the end. I just want scripture to show him how he needs to follow christ and such

If you can share Christ in him, wonderful. If you share about Christ and His history start in the Gospels. If you want Christ up front and personal to ones life in Christ, start in the letters of Paul.

May I show you the difference? This is Mathew, Mark and Luke and John.

Matthew 1:1 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Mark 1:1-2 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.

Luke 1:1-4 Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.

John 1:1-4 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

Now the First letter Paul wrote to the Thessalonians:

1 Thessalonians 1:1 Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Do you see the difference, the Gospels according to Mathew, Mark, and Luke are direct to Israel, John Changes somewhat and puts the emphasis on Jesus Christ the Word. Paul even in his first statement in the Word of God, is already speaking of Grace, our position in Christ, Peace with God, making God our Father as Jesus Christ said to pray "This Way" Our Father.

Paul is the one that will give the information of Christ in you the Hope of Glory. Which is one of my favorite scriptures. Colossians 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
Then the other scripture that makes us new creatures in Christ Jesus. Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

There is a big gulf between who Christ was in the Gospels and Who He is in the believer. This was the Great Revelation Paul received that no other person had at the time it was revealed to him direct by Jesus Christ Himself. Gal 1:16 To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:

Galatians 1:11-12 But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

This Gospel Paul speaks of is called by him, "his Gospel", he says it three times. That means that it is a different gospel and the only one that man will be judged by, for the Born Again Christian.

Rom 2:16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

Rom 16:25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,

2Ti 2:8 Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel:

This is a life long relationship with the Christ that is in us. The simple start of it all is:
John 3:15-17 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

John new more about Paul's Gospel than all the others except Peter who was working hard to understand the things of Paul. Peter Got the big picture of Christ in him when Peter said, "1Pe 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever."

2 Peter 3:15-16 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Start with Paul's first letters and go from there.

In Christ: Phillip

Do not make christ being the center of your life, Make Him your life! Other wise He is still only part of your life.

Don't even make christ the fist in anything but make Him the whole of it and the standard of it.

It's like making a list of priorities and/or values and makeing God the first and top of the list, HE should be the list and evry thing on it should be in HIM and of HIM and because of HIM.

Colossians 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

Christ isn't merely the center of our lives, according to the apolste Paul, He is our life!

Genesis 1:1-In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth...

Seems to kind of build from there.

Regards,
-Bill

Christ isn't merely the center of our lives, according to the apolste Paul, He is our life!

Amen, but what does it mean that 'Christ is our Life?" It is an excellent statement but it's meaning can be quite existential.

Does Christ being our Life mean He is what we live for? IN other worlds does it mean our whole life centers around Christ and He is everything to us?

Or does it mean literally that He is our Life meaning He is within us and lives in us?

We whould have to say in the context of Colossians, it means He is within us and we are in Him and He is literally our Life. It does not refer to our condition or who we "live for" but rather what Christ is actually to us.

It is because He is our Life that we should "set our minds on things above and not on things below.

It is because He is our Life that we should do this or that or be this or that or live for this or that.

Christ being our Life is a matter of reality because if we are His we have been regenerated with His Life and He indwells us and we are untied with Him in our spirit.

But because of this reality, we need to make Him daily and practically the center of our life and live by Him.

The Lord said in John 14 "IN that day you shall know that I am in My Father and you are in Me and I am in you.

His being our Life is a matter of what He has accomplished and to which the Spirit now bears witness to in our regenerated spirit. As we apprehend this reality we are led by the Spirit to live in this reality and the more we do so the more Christ take "first place" in us. It is an organic relationship and not our attitued or condition which the Apostles referes to.

Christ being our life is the basis upon which we enjoy HIs centrality in our experience. Making him central does not make Him our Life but His being our life makes Him central as we yeild to Him and as we grow in this Divine relationship.

If we have never believed into Him savingly, never been convictred of our lost contition apart from Him and never called on Him as our Lord, then He is not our life, He does not indwell us and we are not HIs. But if we have believed into Him and have called on Him and confessed Him as Lord, then He is our Life, He is within us and as a result, our living should corospond to this. But the one is conditional upon the other. He must be our Life before we can enjoy His centrality and know Him in His power within us to bring all our living into His centrality.

Graftedbranch

I agree with Brudel, Gen 1v1 tells us God is the Creator, we are created and nothing without the Creator. Also Exodus 20v3 says you shall have no other god before Me. Once you tell him, the ball is in his court. God bless.

Gen 1v1 tells us God is the Creator, we are created and nothing without the Creator. Also Exodus 20v3 says you shall have no other god before Me. Once you tell him, the ball is in his court. God bless.

If God is merely our Creator then we are still lost. God is much more than our creator. IN Christ He is both our redeemer and our Life. As believers we are much more than restored creatures, we are sons of God with His Life and Nature. We have been born of God and have His Life and through the flow of this Life within us we are partakers of the Divine Nature being conformed to the Image of the First born Son of God.

If God is only our Creator, we are no more than angels. But we are men, created in His image and likenss with a spirit to recieve God and contain God as vessels of His Life to be His expression.

If we only have God as Creator, we are no more than the Muslims who bow down and worship God 5 times a day. We are no more than any who embrace natural religion.

But if we are believers in Christ, we are regenerated with His Life and are children of God, the Spirit Himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are sons of God, and if son's heirs also, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with Him..."

The Gospel is not the restoration of the Creature/Creator relationship. But rather the bringing into being the many sons of God, born of His Life, partaking of His Nature and growing up in all things into Christ who is the Head of His Body. And as such being brought into His glory as the many sons of God.

Graftedbranch

Does Christ being our Life mean He is what we live for? IN other worlds does it mean our whole life centers around Christ and He is everything to us?

Or does it mean literally that He is our Life meaning He is within us and lives in us?

Well, in the context of Colossians it is the latter. He is in us, and the source of our life. However, this isn't really a "either-or" idea, but a "both-and". He is to be the center and source of our life. For if you negate one, the other follows with it.

He is to be the center and source of our life. For if you negate one, the other follows with it.

It is not a small matter which is first. That is, if making Christ the center of your life is first, we are all doomed. But if Christ becomming our Life is first, than our experience of His centrality will follow.

IN other words, a lost sinner can no more make Christ the center of his life than the man in the moon. We have no capacity to make Christ preimenant and central in our lives. He Himself must take this place.

If He is not within us, we have no capacity to know Him, to love Him, to obey Him, to express Him. WE just don't have any means to this end. It is not in our natual makeup. And what is in our natural makeup is not acceptable to God anyway.

And this is only by regenerating us through faith in His Blood and through quickening to life our dead spirit making us children of God.

By this He imparts Himself into us. And by this He is our indwelling Life. And by virtue of His indwelling Life we can enter in and experience HIm as our centrality and our all.

IN other words, by some act of will or commitment on our part, we cannot make Christ central. But all we can do is cry out to Christ to enthrone Himself within us and to take His rightful place.

Let a person resolve that "today Christ will be central" and it may last for an hour or so. But call on the Lord Himself to be central and to work Himself into us, and we shall find Him all day supplying and strengthening and drawing us and convicting us and becomming in us in reality and experience what He is to us in Life.

The gospel is not" dethrone Self and enthrone Christ" But rather, repent and believe. Repent is to turn to heart to God and recieve from God His Lfie, His redemption, His Salvation and to believe into His son to be born of His Life. And this Life brings Christ into us making Him our indwelling Life.

Self must be dethroned and Christ enthroned but Self cannot dethrone Self and Self cannot enthrone christ. But the Spirit can dethrone Self by applying Christ's death and the Spirit can enthrone Christ by strengthening us into our inner man that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith.

And by virtue of this Indwelling Life we present ourselves to God as those alive from the dead. We present ourselves to God as those who are in christ, redeemed, regenerated, resuttected and possesing His Life. By this means we are strengthened into our inner man and Christ is able to make His home in our hearts through faith.

The whole epistle to the Colossians was written to genuine believers in whom Christ was not central. These were being carried way by philosophy, by deciept, by tradition, by religion. Paul wrote to them to bring them back to the centraltiy of Christ. To reveal "Christ in them, the hope of Glory" to show them that christ was Preiminent. That on this basis they should, "mind the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. For, you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Whan Christ, who is our Life is revealed, we shall be revealed also with Him...".

The whole epistle is written to correct errent believers who had substituted for Christ many thigns and Paul writes to reveal Christ to them as their Life and centrality. Not to make them Christians, but to bring them as believers into the full reality of Christ as their indwelling Life.

Graftedbranch