Are your moral standards still based upon what the world believes a Christian is to be, or on what the Word of God says?
Many Christians think the world of the lost believes that we should always be kind and polite, never cuss or swear, always cheerful and in a good mood, in a sense, happy all the time no matter what, and far too many who claim to serve the Lord also think along these lines. They will be on their best behavior around others so as to portray the “proper Christian” image, never offend, always polite, but in most cases what they cannot see is that what they are doing is fitting in perfectly with the world.
And what does the world do, the lost that are the majority of this planet? They will watch you intently, waiting for you to make a mistake, to fall, so they can exclaim “Ah ha, see you’re not all that!” This is a sad game that far too many play, trying to be a Christian, instead of living the life of Christ.
Here then is where many others will take a parallel path, not only will they attempt to please the world, “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.” (Gal. 1:10) But they will also attempt to fulfill the law, the Old Testament standards that the Lord set up for the children of Israel. Not all of them of course, for some reason most seem to believe that the ten commandments are enough, maybe because they do not own an ox, or a muzzle, (Deut. 25:4) but there is some reason that they believe that adherence to these ten is still mandated for those that have been saved by grace.
It is as foolish as saying that believers should not be rich because of our Lord’s conversation with the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16-22, or they will refer to when he said he wanted to know what was necessary for a man to enter into heaven, forgetting that not only that man, but every single other person that he met, including Christ Himself, were still under the law because Christ had not yet risen and defeated death, and fulfilled the law.
Those who have been crucified with Christ are not under the law, we are under grace, (Romans 6:14) we are in Christ (Col. 3:3) and since He fulfilled all the requirements of the law, that grace is imparted to all those who believe in His name. It is that moral construct, that need to do good that keeps most who say the Jesus is Lord from living the life that Christ offers, one free from the burden, and the weight of the law.
Paul needed to spend a lot of time on this subject, even needing to rebuke Peter, (Gal. 2:11-21) so if you are still stuck in this area, you are in good company. Not one man ever born could fulfill the entirety of the law, much less the ten commandments, and if you broke, or disobeyed even one of them, you were guilty of breaking all, and thereby guilty in the eyes of God, unrighteous.
Here is where you must begin to understand what grace means, and you must go far beyond what we have labelled it, unmerited favor. All those who have been saved by the grace of God through Jesus Christ are covered in His blood, it is what He sees when He looks at us, if He were to see us, we would not be in Christ. By attempting to adhere to even one of the laws, much less those “special” ten, we are denying what Christ did on the cross, we are attempting to enter into the kingdom by works, and only one Man ever did that, only One was ever able to fulfill all of the law completely.
What too many believe the world says we should be, nice, polite, kind, never offending, should not be what we strive for, we are to be holy and righteous, we are to be Christ-like, full of love and at the same time filled with a hatred of evil, compassionate when necessary, reproving and rebuking when needed. If you do all that you do for the glory of God, all that you do will fulfill the law of love.
