I regularly buy medicine at The Generics Pharmacy.  Being a regular customer has its perks.  They gave me a copy of a magazine called Evangelicals Today (Vol 36 No. 5). There was an article there written by Bishop Efraim Tendero, D.D. entitled Are We Discipling Our Youth? (page 2)

In that article, he mentioned the word orthopraxy and defined it as: “solidity in doctrine that is substantiated by consistent lifestyle…having the right doctrines and commensurate manner of life.”

I looked it up in my dictionary at home and it wasn’t there.  So, I googled it and found an article in Wikipedia.  The word comes from the Greek word <orthopraxia> meaning correct activity or action. It is a liturgical word which means living life as you believe.

According to Bishop Tendero, being a disciple means “holding on to orthopraxy.” He explained that this is what Apostle Paul told Timothy to do in 1 Timothy 4: 16 when he said “take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine.”  There must be consistency in the public and private life such that both reflect the doctrines we proclaim and believe”.  In today’s language, it simply means: walk the talk.

I suppose that most people who hear the gospel message are likely to believe it if they see that we not only talk the talk but also walk the walk.  In the same way, those people to whom we share the gospel need to also know that being a christian does not end with a profession of salvation, but the profession of salvation must be followed with a decision to be a disciple or follower of Jesus Christ.

Yesterday, at the Young People’s Fellowship at Project 8 BBC, three high school girls sang a song that had the line “they had been with Jesus.”  The song moved me to tears.That line came from Acts 4:13.  It narrates the reaction of the Pharisees ad Sadducees when Peter and John were arrested for preaching in the name of Jesus: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled: and they took knowledge that they had been with Jesus.”

That is the question we must ask ourselves constantly:  Do my actions and my words show that I have been with Jesus?  Do I live in such close fellowship with the Risen Lord that his very personality is indelibly marked upon my own?  Have I so thoroughly identified with Jesus that I speak His words and live as He did?  In short, am I a follower of Christ?

Discipleship means that we can no longer hide behind the protection of an intellectual or academic dialog on faith and spiritual matters.  Discipleship means taking sides, taking the side of Jesus Christ. We cannot be neutral, we must be partisan.

Some people have chided us saying that we as Christians ought to seek to understand others but not to judge them, that we ought to try to help others instead of criticizing them. I disagree.  The most loving thing a Christian can do to a person who is on the road to hell is to tell him so.  The most caring thing a Christian can do is to stop that person, tell him of the danger he is in and point the way to Jesus Christ. The Bible is more stern for it commands us to “pull them out of fire.”

We need to understand others without judging them only if we were engaged in a purely academic or intellectual analysis of religious beliefs.  But if we are to engage the world and proclaim the gospel message, if we are to be true disciples of Jesus Christ, we cannot simply engage the world in an intellectual or academic dialog. We need to call sin, sin; for only sinners need a Redeemer and Savior.

If we gloss over the presence and power of sin to destroy life, we are in fact robbing Christ of his due honor and glory as Redeemer and Savior.Because only sinners need a Savior.  If we say we have no sin or that we do not sin, then we not only deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, we also render Jesus Christ and Calvary as unnecessary and irrelevant.  After all, if we are not sinners, what’s the use of Christ’s death on the cross?  If we negate the importance of Christ’s death on the cross, then our faith is in vain. Why discuss it at all?

We need to present Jesus Christ, his exclusive claims of deity and lordship and invite people to decide. And we who have decided to follow Christ, we need to take heed, indeed.  Take heed unto ourselves and unto our doctrine.  Hold on to orthopraxy,indeed.  Live as we believe.  Walk the talk!