Truth in Jesus should build its own buffer to these influences. The more the love of him constrains us the less becomes the world’s erosion. This is the ideal but there is a need to define the ‘influences of the world’ and just a little too eagerly we grasp the more obvious weaknesses — immodest dress, smoking, dancing, gambling, swearing and the like — and appropriate to ourselves righteousness by rigorous denial in both ourselves and others. Not for a moment could it be said that any of these things become the child of God, but how incredible to see that, having put off these, we SO readily justify hypocrisy, untruthfulness, hardness of heart, enmity, slander, and at the same time have confidence that we have kept ourselves unspotted from the World.
If we ask ourselves why we do see about us the incredible blindness to sin and the bland justification of same, we can only presume that in an ecclesial world of increasing Bible knowledge, there is a fundamental weakness. Firstly, it must relate to our God-awareness; secondly, to our lack of appreciation of our true dependence on God-given strength and thirdly, we must pose the blunt question, “Is our interpretation of Scripture, with its emphasis on theoretical theology, at fault?” Has the accent on ‘flesh’ being morally bankrupt, produced a scapegoat that can be blamed instead of the individual as a whole? How far have we justified strife, division, and duplicity to achieve an end that is called ‘purity’ but in reality is gratification of power and imposition of package ideology? We have rightly accused the Orthodox churches of using the devil as substitution for their own misdemeanors but have we, in some circles of the body, misconstrued Paul’s personification of our sinful actions as existing apart from our being, and therefore have counted ourselves not really morally responsible?
A category of sins’ outworking’s is set out in Galatians 5:v.19-21 and Paul states that those who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. But in verses 22 and 23 he sets out what is acceptable for the saint. Simply put he contends that if you persist in sin you will ultimately perish; but rather you should make that same body of flesh that is you, follow after a pattern of good works.
Any attempt to legalise righteousness or to set up a non-responsible duality will produce the same deadly effects as Paul spoke about in Romans 6 — the specious reasoning that allowed sinners of his day to justify themselves… “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God Forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?” Continuing through Romans chapter 7, Paul admits and bemoans the difficulty in overcoming the natural appetites but he does rejoice in that he doesn’t have to `go it alone’ for God through Jesus Christ gives him the victory. It is not that Paul didn’t KNOW the commandments and truly believed them but, even then, he NEEDED help from above and he humbly submitted to it in joyous gratitude.
Positively speaking we must beware of a false sense of security. An artificial wall of negatives will not protect ourselves or our children. Nor does the presence of a Bible and a well marked text alone protect from the impact of youth’s immaturity or their parents’ ivory tower attitude. Sharing outdoor exercise, a combined analysis of both senior and junior shortcomings (who wasn’t able to learn something from his children?) together with an open Bible, will build a healthy and humble approach to honestly facing and grappling with our personal failings. Those who can only see faults in others and will not admit shortcomings close to home are not respected, especially by the young. A most God-fearing apostle, Paul, admitted in anguish to all the world that he himself had unchristian failings that at the same time he desperately wanted to avoid.
The family of God is a many splendored unit, balanced with a strong emphasis on moral scruples as much as the doctrines of God (James 2:19-20). Prayer and the reality of Jesus in the home must not be minimised or despised nor the help he can give in strengthening our families to overcome our shortcomings once we have honestly faced up to them.
What is a Bible Student?