What images come to your mind when you hear or see the word “dedication?” What people immediately come to mind? Athletes? Military special forces? Perhaps godly parents. Certain missionaries past or present might be in your mind’s eye. Why did these people come to mind? What is it about them that describes them as dedicated?
“Dedicated” can be defined this way:
- wholly committed to something, as to an ideal, political cause, or personal goal
- set apart or reserved for a specific use or purpose[1]
Understanding dedication to God in Christ
As believers in Jesus Christ, every single believer has been set apart or reserved for God’s use and purposes. God calls upon us to live in the reality of this by actively committing ourselves to live for God and His will, to dedicate ourselves to Him. Romans 12:1-2 tell us,
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
In gratitude to Christ Jesus for the extravagant grace that we have received through His sacrifice, Paul urges us to determine to give ourselves to God. We are to “present our bodies” to Him. In other words, we are God’s—everything about us, every part of our life, including our physical bodies and our hearts and minds.
Christians are actually given by the Father to Jesus, separated out from the rest of the people in this world. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus prays that we would know by experience this sanctification through His truth. We are to know and to live as though we are set apart in this way, dedicated to Jesus, reserved by God to do His will (John 17).
Understanding dedication includes a calling to a task
After expressing these realities to the Father, Jesus then prayed, “As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world” (John 17:18). The will of Jesus for His people is that they prioritize the proclamation of His name throughout the world. Every believer is called to dedicate themselves to the Great Commission until He comes again!
I have written elsewhere about the Great Commission Life Principle: “I must be all things to all men with all discipline of body and spirit that I might win some.” This principle assumes that we understand that we are set apart by salvation to serve Jesus. It requires that love for God, love for His people, and love for the lost make us willing to limit our liberties and lay aside our rights as necessary to effectively serve the Lord.
Understanding how dedication affects our lifestyle
Now let’s focus on dedication as communicated to us in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27:
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. [2]
The apostle Paul here calls upon all believers in Jesus Christ to actively dedicate themselves to the Great Commission in such a way that it radically affects our lifestyle, our choices. True athletes and elite military personnel change their diet, endure continual intense exercise routines, focus their best energy on training and mastering certain skills, and submit themselves to superiors and trainers who can help them achieve their goal: the prize, winning, or being their best.
Consider this passage again through the Amplified Bible:
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run [their very best to win], but only one receives the prize? Run [your race] in such a way that you may seize the prize and make it yours! Now every athlete who [goes into training and] competes in the games is disciplined and exercises self-control in all things. They do it to win a crown that withers, but we [do it to receive] an imperishable [crown that cannot wither]. Therefore I do not run without a definite goal; I do not flail around like one beating the air [just shadow boxing]. But [like a boxer] I strictly discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached [the gospel] to others, I myself will not somehow be disqualified [as unfit for service].[3]
Applying the principle of dedication to life
How is dedication to Christ, and dedication to His clearly revealed will in the Great Commission, seen in life? It mirrors that of the athletes described above. Here are some practical take-aways:
Own the Great Commission.
You are already in this “race” (Hebrews 12:1). Are you even running? How well are you running? Are you all-in, or are you walking?
Learn self-discipline by God’s grace.
No athlete can compete well without intense physical and mental conditioning. It is even more true for elite military. Those that win or succeed, those that excel in their field to gain temporal rewards, have discipline as a common trait.
For a believer in Christ, self-discipline begins with the basics: Bible study, prayer, faithful involvement in the local church, achieving victory over sinful habits, learning to live according to God’s love, and intentionality in evangelism—these are our disciplines. The lack of these reveals our lack of dedication. Are you conforming your lifestyle, your habits, your use of time and resources, your entertainment choices, to reflect your priorities? By God’s grace, we can! It is not God’s will for us to do this in our own strength, but in His.
Maintain focus.
We must keep going back to the basics. The fundamentals cannot be bypassed. We must not allow the concerns of this life or its entrapments to distract us or slow us down. If we do, we will find ourselves “unfit for service” and looking back with regret.
The secular world, at least those concerned about results and success, are very aware of this need to focus continually on the fundamentals. Famous sports coaches like Vince Lombardi (Green Bay Packers) and Phil Jackson (Chicago Bulls) were well-known for this emphasis (Hidden Power of Mastering the Fundamentals).
Christian, are you living in the awareness that you are already dedicated to Christ through your salvation? Are you living like someone dedicated to Him? Does your active dedication to Jesus affected your lifestyle choices? Do your decisions give priority to the fulfilment of the Great Commission? May God helps us to know more deeply what it means to be “living sacrifices” (Romans 12:1-2).
This article is a revision of one first published here on Commissioned: Extending Grace to the Nations. This is part four of a series. Read part one: The Great Commission Life Principle.
[1]https://www.dictionary.com/browse/dedicated
[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016).
[3] The Amplified Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. (www.Lockman.org)