Our relationship with Creator God through Jesus Christ is the basis for authentic living. To live an authentic life is not about cultivating and carefully conforming to our cherished list of do’s and don’ts; rather to live in a vibrant relationship with Jesus, who said, ‘abide in me’ (John 15).
Paul’s appeal for honest living is not based on conformity to commandments. His emphasis is who we are and what we have become in Christ Jesus.
He writes, “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew … slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all” (Col.3: 9-11).
The motivation to live an honest life in community is our new life in Christ.
Being authentic involves being renewed in the image of our Creator God, as we live dependent upon Him and in experiencing the living Christ, who redeems and sets us free from the bondage of our karma, or sins.
This helps in overcoming anxiety about our past which we cannot rewrite, about our future which we do not know and anxiety in the present which drains us out.
The Holy Spirit empowers us to live a joyful, abundant life realizing our calling, living for higher purposes, taking care of the poor who live on the margins. Power for authentic living is a gift of God’s grace to us in Christ Jesus. Therefore, our response must be one of gratitude to God.
New life in Christ points to a consistency between what is inside and what is outside, between belief and behaviour, our words and our ways, our attitudes and our actions. We must be true to who we are in Christ.