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LIFE Bite is a short-format Christian video podcast where Chet Lowe and guests dive into real-life issues with biblical truth—one bite at a time.
Each episode delivers practical wisdom, spiritual insight, and honest conversations to help you grow in faith and live with purpose.
This past week we had the opportunity to talk about Timothy. His mom made a mistake. She did not circumcise him. Now, like I said on Sunday, if the conversation is a little disconcerting to you or you are a little embarrassed about it, think how Timothy must have felt when the Flintstone was coming towards him.
It's important for us to just take a look and a little commercial break on this particular thing because it was his mom that made the mistake. She should have done something that she did not do. And Timothy's paying the price for it.
Now, Timothy could have been a victim. He could have blamed God, blamed his parents. "I can't believe what they did to me. And look what it is. And I'm become a victim." And many people in our millennial world, they do that. They blame everybody for who they are.
Or you can do like Timothy did. And this, I believe, is the biblical response. You can choose to change. Yes, your parents may have done something, someone may have done something. You may justifiably have been hurt. But there's a reality of life. And here's the reality of life: The rain falls on the just and the unjust. There are going to be things in life that are gonna happen to you that are good. And there are gonna be things in your life that happened to you that are bad. You get to choose what you're gonna do with it.
Now, if you choose to blame, if you choose to blame, well, you're gonna end up a victim. And you'll probably end up so much of a victim that you're not going to get to the place of victory. But if you choose to embrace, "okay, this thing happened to me, what are you going to do with it?" Well, if you choose to embrace it, you've got the opportunity, like Timothy, to be victorious and develop a character.
Listen to what the Bible says in Romans, chapter 5, verse 3. The Bible says not only that as a Christian, we also glory in tribulations. Listen to the perspective - he's not blaming. "I can't believe God allowed this to happen to me." I'm gonna choose to give God glory in the midst of the bad things that happen to me. The tribulations.
Then he goes on to say, here's what I'm gonna choose to do with it. Knowing that our tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance, character and character, hope. Now, hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
And so what Paul is saying is I have got a bad thing that has happened in my life, but I'm gonna choose to let it be like clay that I can mold in my hands. And here's what I choose to mold this bad thing into. I'm going to choose first and foremost, he says, I'm gonna choose to mold it into building my perseverance. God's just making me stronger. He's allowing me to go through a hard practice so that I can be a stronger Christian like an athlete will going through a hard practice.
Then he goes, not am I gonna be stopped with perseverance. I'm going to allow this to develop into me character. So I'm gonna develop the character of perseverance. Not just the event of perseverance. I'm gonna be enduring, I'm gonna be longsuffering because these are qualities of God that I want in my life and not the sense that I'm gonna end up in defeat and miserable. He goes, no, my character is gonna lead me to hope.
Now, this is the stairway to heaven. Tribulation produces perseverance, produces character, produces hope. You can choose a stairway to hell where you've got a trial and it doesn't lead to perseverance. You end up quitting. And instead of developing character, you compromise. And instead of hope, you're in despair. You want to be the victim or you want to be the victor. You get to choose.
Now, the Bible says that we're to be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. In Romans chapter 8:29, he took the bad things in his life that happened to him. And there was a crucifixion that grew into three days later, a resurrection. Now, it was a process, three days. And it may take some time until you experience the victory or the resurrection in your life. But the goal that we have is to be conformed into his image. And his image was not to quit and compromise. His image is to build perseverance, which builds character, which leads to our hope. And so we're to be conformed into his image.
And then the Bible says in 1 Peter, I want to read this for you. 1 Peter Chapter 1, verse 15 and 16. "But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it's written, be holy, for I am holy." So there's our standard that we're choosing to attain to - we're gonna be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ, and his image is holy. In other words, he's going to live out the word of God. That's why he said, in the garden of Gethsemane, another trial in his life. He said, "this happens so that Scripture will be fulfilled in my life." That needs to be our goal. No matter what comes our way, good or bad, Scripture is going to be fulfilled in our life.
And so what kind of mindset do we need to have if we're going to purpose to be holy? Whether it's good or whether it's bad, we're not going to blame. We're going to choose to embrace. Peter then gives us the mindset. He says this, therefore, in 1 Peter 4:1, "Since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves, listen also with the same mind. For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he should no longer live the rest of his life and the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For we've spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles. When we walked in lewdness and lust, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries."
Listen to what Peter's saying. Getting rid of the flesh is gonna be hard, okay? This is a process. Do you think circumcision was easy for Timothy? Getting rid of the flesh is going to be a hard process, but it's leading you to victory. It's moving you away from being the victim. So choosing that first step of embracing "this is what's happened to me. What am I gonna do with this? How am I gonna mold this?" Peter says, look, it's going to be hard. Let me just be honest with you. But then he says this. You've spent enough of your lifetime doing the will and the way of the Gentiles. In other words, living the way of the world. How's that worked for you? You're miserable, you're resentful, you're bitter, you're unforgiving. Well, that's a great human being. Why not choose to go the way of God, which is the holiness, the way the Word is communicating, for us to go and get rid of these things that he mentions, lewdness and lust and drunkenness and all of these things that leads us to what Paul communicated that we talked about this past Sunday in Ephesians, chapter four. You've got to put off the old man.
In fact, in 2 Corinthians, chapter 6, the Bible says, "come out from among them." In other words, change has got to be your new definition. I am choosing to change. I am choosing and I'll give you the biblical word. I'm choosing to be transformed by the renewing of my mind. In other words, I learned something of the holiness of the Bible. And I realize I've gotta get rid of something, but I've also got to. He goes on to say, not just put off, put on the new man. I can't just get rid of ungodliness without putting on some form of godliness in my life.
And so Paul gives the prescription for change. He said, look, if you're gonna be conformed into the image, if your mind is gonna be transformed and your life is gonna be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ, then here's what you gotta do. Put off the old man, get rid of the things that aren't like Jesus, that are not holy, and put on the new man. And the new man is the one that is conformed into the image of Jesus Christ.
Now, in hearing this, some of them been Christians for 10, 20, 30, 40 years, and there's still some things about us that have not changed. And let me come before you and say I'm not perfect, and I'm even convicted in the process of communicating, because there's things about even myself that needs to change. And so we get to make a decision.
Now, the writer of Hebrews not Chetlow, the writer of Hebrews communicates something so clearly that maybe all of us need to hear. He writes them in Hebrews Chapter 5 verse 12. And he says this. Some of you should be teachers by now, but you're still babies and you can read it for yourself. Hebrews 5, 12, 14. And he says, you've got to grow up basically in verse 14. And the way that you grow up is that you're digging deep in the word of God as a regular practice so that you can discern, you can know what to put off the evil and what to put on the good that's found in Jesus Christ.
So here's why I want to close, because I think this is the exhortation to everybody, including myself, in two Peter. We started with the fact you want to be a victim and just blame everybody around you. Or do you want to be victorious and embrace what's happened to you and use it and mold it and shape it into what God wants to do in your life? And so Peter, Peter who suffered endlessly, Peter who died upside down on a cross after watching his wife crucified, Peter says this in 2 Peter chapter 3. He communicates something so powerful, you therefore closes up his last letter. "Beloved Christians, that's what they call Christians. Since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness being led away with the error of the wicked." And let me put it in my context, stop blaming. Stop, because it's going to lead you down a path that's going to lead you to unforgiveness and resentment and bitterness. He says get rid of that.
And then he says this. But here's the contrast. "Grow in the grace. Grow up in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." You want to move from a victim to a victor? Grow in the grace. Get to know the grace that God has given us in the word of God. What a gift, what a favor from God that he's given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. All we have to do is dig deep and find it so that we can choose to be victorious. We'll see you next week.