TO every conscious being is given a responsibility by God to ensure that they themselves live morally. To do justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly before God; to have no other Gods before him; to love God with all their heart, mind and strength; and to see the man jumped by robbers on the way to Jericho, and, instead of passing him by, to bandage his wounds and see that he is cared for at our own expense. Living in this way is what God expects.
Of the people that are blessed enough to realize that this lifestyle is, in fact, God's will, only some of them will realize that it is right but it is unlivable, because human nature renders us incapable of living to this standard. Thus, they ask for Christ's help, and study his example in leading this sort of life, and necessarily in doing so, they become part of the church. At this point, it becomes their obligation to see that the rest of the church is constantly looking to Christ to live as God commands, as it says in Hebrews,
“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”
However, christians should always be wary of holding the outside world to the same standards that we are held to by the word. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5,
“What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside.”
We may and probably will find it more difficult to maintain our standard of morality as our culture becomes more depraved, but that is *our* problem, not the unbeliever's. Their sin is all they have and it will not let go of them, even as God casts it into hell. God, in his wisdom, gave them free will "to do harm or to do good". How dare we declare him wrong by trying to make the moral decisions of others for them, even as we admit we are incapable of making our own?
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2 comments:
AMEN BROTHER!!!!
I am so tired of Christians spending all of their time and energy trying to get people to stop sinning before or even without trying to lead them to Christ. NO ONE will give up a sin that feels good and makes sense in a fallen world if they don't know Christ and God's plan!
Good words Chris. There is indeed a great difference between telling an unbeliever "Stop sinning" and "You can't stop sinning! Believe the gospel and you will be saved!". The latter is obviously our message, whereas the former is grounded in an empty religious morality that can only imprison us further.
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