An Epistle to the Church Concerning the Way of Life and Godly Appearance

Samuel Abiodun Ojo, a servant of Jesus Christ, called and sent for apostolic formation, the raising of sons, and the teaching of the truth of Christ, to the brethren of the ECN and to those who are called by the name of Christ, to the assembly that bears His testimony in this present age:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present world system, according to the will of God. To Him be glory forever. Amen.

 

I marvel that you are so quickly drifting from the simplicity and authority of the life you received, and are allowing yourselves to be shaped by standards that did not call you, nor give themselves for you. This turning is not unto another gospel, but unto a distortion of the life of Christ, where liberty is confused with license, and grace is separated from transformation.

 

Let me speak plainly, as one who labours for your souls.

 

When you received Christ, you did not receive a feeling, nor an experience alone, but a life. And the life you received was not fashioned after the spirit of this age, but after the holiness of God. How then has the life that called you out of darkness now been clothed in the garments of the world?

 

Who has bewitched you, that having begun in the Spirit, you now seek expression by the flesh? Did the Spirit teach you modesty, reverence, and restraint in vain? Or did the Scriptures instruct you to mirror the nations you were called out from?

 

From the beginning, it was not so.

 

The Scriptures testify that the people of God are a peculiar people, not by noise but by nature, not by claims but by conduct. The outward appearance was never the foundation of righteousness, yet it was always the fruit of inward order. For what the heart submits to, the body will express.

 

Do you not know that your body is a vessel, and a vessel speaks of ownership? You do not adorn a king’s temple carelessly, nor do you clothe a servant of God as one who belongs to another master.

 

I fear for you, lest the Church, in seeking relevance, has abandoned reverence. You have embraced the language of “God looks at the heart” while neglecting that God Himself commands the heart to govern the body. This saying, though true, has been twisted to excuse disorder, not to cultivate holiness.

 

Grace was never given to weaken discipline. Grace was given to empower obedience.

 

Tell me, brethren:

Did Christ clothe Himself to attract the world, or to reveal the Father?

Did the apostles conform to the culture of their cities, or did their lives stand as a quiet rebuke to it?

 

You were not called to imitate the age, but to judge it by your light.

 

Some will say, “These things do not matter.” But if they did not matter, the Spirit would not have spoken of modesty, self-control, sobriety, and good works. These things are not chains; they are signs of maturity. A disciplined life is not legalism; it is lordship rightly acknowledged.

 

I do not write these things to condemn you, but to restore you. For correction is proof of love, and silence in the face of deviation is cruelty.

 

Let each examine himself, not by comparison with others, but by the Word that called him. Ask not, “Is it allowed?” but, “Does it reveal Christ?” Ask not, “Will God forgive me?” but, “Does this honor the life He gave me?”

 

Brethren, holiness is not outdated. The world has only renamed rebellion as freedom. But the Church must not borrow her definitions from those who do not know God.

 

Stand therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made you free, and do not submit again to the bondage of worldliness disguised as grace. For the freedom of the Spirit always produces restraint, not excess; clarity, not confusion.

 

May the Lord grant you understanding in all things, and may your lives preach what your mouths confess.

 

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Amen.