What does it mean to "live well"?
This phrase, "Learn how to live well," is written on the clothes I design, it is the main subject I write about, it is the main theme of my prayers, it fills up the content of my discourses, and when talking with me, you will hear me advise to learn to live well. But what does it actually mean? Where am I getting this phrase from?
I've learned this saying from within the Bible, where it says, "Learn to do well," Isaiah 1:17.
The number one instruction in the Bible is to learn how to do what is “well.” What, then, does it mean to do well? Because the inquiry is into the Bible's opinion of what is "well," we ought to silence our thoughts on what we believe is "well."
If I wanted to live well, I'm sure I could think of ways; whether they are injurious or not, because they come from the natural part of my being, who cares; of living well, but our inquiry, because we are honest enough to say with Paul, "That which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I," Romans 7:15, is in a philosophy greater than the philosophy naturally engraved into the human being. If I wanted to live well, I could never live well. I am not created with knowledge of well-living, which is why we ought, when desiring answers of government from the Bible, to silence our thoughts on what we believe is "well."
We actually do learn what is "well," and the living God does share with us what is "well" through the illustration of His chief apostle suspended between heaven and earth. "Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances," Ephesians 2:15, His minister "hath redeemed us from the curse of the law," Galatians 3:13, teaching that the beginning of "wellness" is understanding that "the strength of sin is the law," 1 Corinthians 15:56.
To do "well" is to do exactly what this illustration is saying. If we would "do well,” we would refrain from what the living God has categorized as "sin" to honor the saying, "Put off concerning the former conversation the old man...and be renewed in the spirit of your mind," Ephesians 4:22,23.
Paul is citing the fact behind that illustration. What was crucified was an "old man" or an "old" devotional philosophy encouraging an "old" devotional manner. This "old" devotional philosophy is as Paul says, a religious conversation governed by "sin," which "sin" the living God terms, "The law." This "law" is the general code behind Moses' religious philosophy, which code teaches that justification and righteousness comes from doing what is handwritten by theologians. The crucifixion of that body means the annihilation of this religious philosophy, and when consenting to let the conversation die to this religious code of service, we are actually consenting to do what is, according to the Bible's philosophy, "well."
Why is "wellness" achieved when dying to the religious philosophy the living God has crucified, abolished, and abandoned? The answer is because personal and devotional health appears when the experience of the conversation’s conscience isn’t dictated by forces outside of that conscience’s will, even like as it says, "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God," Romans 12:2.
What is actually happening when the devotional mind is actually being renewed? When the conversation is proving the living God’s words and its character is transforming into the devotional character of those words, what is actually happening? What is happening is, according to the living God, "wellness." Why is the renewing and transformation of the conversation's conscience considered to be the number one sign of "wellness"? The answer is found in the saying, "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth," 1 Timothy 2:4.
Paul has, in one verse, explained the reality of "salvation," that it occurs when "knowledge" of the living God’s science is entered in to. If we are then correctly tracking the definition of "wellness," we are learning that the Bible's philosophy pronounces the conversation to be "healthy" when passing away from what it categorizes as "sin."
To the Bible, "sin" is defined as the philosophy of the religious law, which philosophy states that the person is perfect, intelligent, and divinely favored through executing what is handwritten or traditionally believed. Crucifying such a philosophy, the living God has removed this doctrine from His religious character, letting every willing mind know that "through knowledge shall the just be delivered," Proverbs 11:9. The regeneration of the conversation's conscience from that slain and abolished religious philosophy is the true definition of "salvation," which is why it is the living God's will that our faith's mind understands the knowledge or science of His mind's intention, because when enlightened, and when turning away from what is annihilated, the personal and devotional self will be "well."
So what does all this mean? How does any of this answer the question of "living well"?
To "live well" is to first begin to edify the devotional mind away from what is crucified. When "living well," our mind is actually drawing nearer to the living God's words without the support of popular theology and pre-conceived nations. When "living well," our faith's mind, as it proves the Bible's philosophy, is coming into contact with facts regenerating its understanding on the living God's religious character, and when this takes place, our devotional mind will begin to counsel our natural mind, giving to us the equilibrium we need to live in a state for developing peace.
So, what does it mean to "live well"? It means to become informed on what the living God has categorized as "sin," to refrain from it. Refraining from what is categorized as "sin," we embrace "wellness" by understanding the living God's logic behind categorizing the code behind Moses' religious philosophy as "sin." This understanding will lead to the beginning of learning how to live "well," becoming more inwardly whole through the knowledge we gain when learning of and proving the Bible's philosophy.
The goal of the Bible’s philosophy is for its words to reach our natural mind, to edify it. When refraining from what is spiritually inherited and self-cultivated, the exercising of our mind on the Bible’s words, and on our experience with those words, will give us good knowledge on how to live “well.” This is the entire point. We are to be rational beings living not according to our natural mind, but to the edified mind that is within. Honoring the devotional philosophy the living God calls “well” is the beginning of our inward wellness, which philosophy we need if we should ever think to reach our highest individual potential.