We believe that it is the responsibility of all Christians to love God and their neighbor, to worship God in spirit and in truth, to study the Scriptures, and to pray continually in order to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in daily living.  We are to be filled with (which means being controlled by) the Spirit, share the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ, and encourage one another in the faith as we look expectantly for the coming of our Lord.  It is inconsistent with the Gospel and with Scripture, however, to seek to gain or keep eternal salvation by godly living.  The Scripture does present several motivations for obedience in the Christian life.

1.      A powerful motivation for living the Christian life is gratitude to God for saving us by His grace (Romans 12:1,2; II Corinthians 5:14, 15; Galatians 2:20).

2.      Believers should also be motivated by the knowledge that their heavenly Father both blesses obedience and disciplines disobedience in His children (Hebrews 12:3-11; Leviticus 26:1-45).

3.      Finally, every Christian must stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ, not to determine his destiny in heaven or hell, but to assess the quality of his Christian life on earth.  Anticipating either reward or loss of reward at the Judgment Seat should also motivate believers to perseverance and to faithfulness to God’s revealed will (I Corinthians 3:10-17; 9:24-27; James 5:8, 9; I John 2:28-3:3).

Matthew 28:18-20; John 4:23-24; 15:16-17; Acts 1:8; Romans 12:1-2; Galatians 5:22-26; Ephesians 2:10; 5:18-21; II Timothy 2:15; Titus 2:11-15