methods. He spent a few months buried up to his neck, he tried living in an enclosed cell for about 10 years, and he spent time in different monasteries. But nothing satisfied his desire to show devotion to God. Then Simeon came up with a new idea—he climbed on the top of a 9-foot-high pillar and called it home. After several additions, the pillar eventually grew to 60 feet. Though some people scoffed at him, Simeon didn’t care. He was trying his best to live a devoted Christian life.

Throughout history, Christians have tried to understand and achieve the Christlikeness the Bible calls for. Here are some of the ways people in the past have chosen to live the Christian life.

Lonely Living. In the early days of Christianity, many people thought the best way to achieve communion with God was to get away from man. Simeon Stylites was one example. A group known as the Bosci lived in fields and ate grass like cattle. One hermit had a reputation (especially downwind) because he never bathed or changed his clothes. Still another man wandered naked in the desert near Mount Sinai for 50 years.

Some who chose to isolate themselves from the world decided they could best escape its temptations by living with others who shared their ideas. Monasteries were established and became an important source of teaching and missionary activity.

Legal Living. There have always been people who felt that true spirituality is found in rituals and rules. In New Testament times, for example, some believers taught that Christians were required to follow the demands of the Old Testament law (see Acts 15, Galatians, Colossians). Legalism extols external appearance and religious activity to the neglect of the inner qualities of the Christian life. Many in our world today think they are right with God because of what they do or do not do, not because of their personal relationship to Jesus Christ.

Lawless Living. When believers overemphasize God’s grace and neglect His holiness, they fall into the trap of lawless living. Christians in the past have said that since Christ satisfied the demands of God’s law, we no longer have to worry about measuring up to God’s holy standards. “We can sin as much as we want,” they said. The apostle Paul anticipated this kind of behavior in his letter to the Christians in Rome (Rom. 6).

Perfect Living. Pelagius (c.400) taught that man’s basic nature was uncorrupted by the fall. On that basis he said that we are able to live free from sin when assisted by the grace of God. One present-day religious system emphasizes that as a person is baptized for the removal of original sin, and then receives additional grace through the other sacraments of the church, he then has the ability to act in perfect obedience to the laws of God.

John Wesley (1703-1791) took quite a different approach to perfect living. He spoke of a second work of God’s grace (after salvation) in which the sinful root in man is removed and the motive and will are made perfect.

Hardworking Living. Augustine (354-430) taught that perfection eludes even the best of human efforts aided by God’s grace. His solution was that God works to produce in us all that He requires from us (“God gives what God commands”). The Protestant Reformers built upon Augustine’s root principles, and present-day teachers in the Lutheran and Reformed traditions continue this emphasis.

Hardworking holiness emphasizes that even though victory over sin can be expected along the way, we are always at war with Satan. The Christian life is to be a walk in which the believer totally and humbly depends on the Holy Spirit while actively pursuing the goal of Christlikeness through spiritual discipline and activity.

Restful Living. For the past century, a group has said that the secret to Christian living is to “let go and let God.” Through the influence of the Keswick Convention held annually in Great Britain since 1875, this teaching gained a wide following. The Keswick groups maintain that through a conscious reliance on the Holy Spirit, and through calling on His power in every temptation, the believer can rise above sin and overcome the sinful nature. Christians are encouraged to cease from striving to be holy and to trust Jesus to give them victory over sin. In effect, they promise victory over all known sin if the believer will consider himself dead to sin and alive to God (Rom. 6:11) and if he will rest on Jesus and the Spirit.

These historical approaches to living the Christian life reflect the struggle man has always had with sin. Some people today have given up the battle: others pretend that it no longer exists. Our prayer is that this booklet has helped you find the true answer from the Word of God.

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