Personal from
Joseph Tkach
Personal from
Joseph Tkach
In December, I wrote about the role of the law in Christian life. I pointed out that Christians are not under the Law of Moses, and that we cannot be saved by any law, even the commandments of the New Testament.
Still, Christianity does have behavioral standards. It does involve changes in the way we live. It does make demands on our lives. We are to live for Christ, not for ourselves (2 Cor. 5:15). God is our priority in everything, and he has something to say about the way we live.
One of the last things that Jesus told his disciples to do was to teach people "to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:20). Jesus gave commands, and as his disciples we must also preach commands and preach obedience. We preach and obey these commands not as a means of salvation, not as a standard of condemnation, but as instructions from the Son of God. People are to obey his words not out of fear of punishment, but simply because their Savior says so.
Perfect obedience is not the goal of the Christian life; the goal of the Christian life is to belong to God. We belong to God when Christ lives in us, and Christ lives in us when we put our faith in him. Christ in us leads us by the Holy Spirit toward obedience.
As I described in October, God is transforming us into the image of Christ. By God's grace and power, we are becoming more like Christ. His commands involve not just outward behavior, but also the thoughts and motives of our hearts. These thoughts and motives of our hearts need the transforming power of the Holy Spirit; we cannot just change them ourselves by willpower. Part of faith, then, is trusting God to do his transforming work in us.
The greatest command--love for God--is also the greatest motive for obedience. We obey him because we love him, and we love him because he has graciously drawn us into his own household. It is God who works in us, both to will and to behave according to his good purpose (Phil. 2:13).
What do we do when we fall short? Repent and ask forgiveness, of course, in full confidence that it is ours. We do not take it lightly, but we should always take it.
What do we do when others fall short? Condemn them, and insist that they do good works to prove their sincerity? That's the human tendency, it seems, and yet this is precisely what Christ said we should not do (Luke 17:3).
What does the Christian life look like? There are hundreds of commands in the New Testament. We are not lacking in guidance for how a faith-based life works itself out in the real world. There are commands for how the rich should treat the poor, commands for how husbands should treat their wives, commands for how we should work together as a church.
1 Thessalonians 5:12-22 contains a simple list
Respect those who ... are over you in the Lord
Live in peace with each other
Warn those who are idle
Encourage the timid
Help the weak
Be patient with everyone
Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong
Always try to be kind
Be joyful always
Pray continually
Give thanks in all circumstances
Do not put out the Spirit's fire
Do not treat prophecies with contempt
Test everything
Hold on to the good
Avoid every kind of evil
Paul knew that the Thessalonian Christians had the Holy Spirit, who could guide and teach them. He also knew that they needed some basic exhortations or reminders about the Christian life. The Spirit chose to teach and guide them through Paul himself. Paul did not threaten to kick them out of the church if they failed to measure up--he simply gave commands that instructed them in the paths of faithfulness.
Paul had high standards. Even though forgiveness for sin is available, sin does have its penalties in this life, and this sometimes includes social penalties. "You must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat" (1 Cor. 5:11).
Paul did not want the church to become a haven for blatant, defiant sinners. The church is a hospital for reform, not a safe zone for social parasites to practice. Paul told the Corinthian Christians to discipline an openly incestuous man (1 Cor. 5:1-5), and he also encouraged them to forgive the man after he had repented (2 Cor. 2:5-8).
The New Testament has a lot to say about sin, and it gives us plenty of commands. Let's look at the book of Galatians. In this manifesto of Christian freedom from the law, Paul also has some bold commands.
Christians are not under the law, but neither are they lawless. He warns, "Don't let yourself be circumcised, or else you will fall out of grace!" That is a pretty serious command (5:2-4). Do not let yourself be enslaved by an obsolete law!
Paul warns the Galatians about people who would try to prevent them "from obeying the truth" (v. 7). Paul is turning the tables on the Judaizers. They claimed to be obeying God, but Paul is saying they were not. The truth of Christ demands that we let the old covenant go, and we disobey God if we try to command something that is now obsolete.
Paul takes another twist in verse 9: "A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough." The sinful leaven in this case is the old covenant law! This approach to religion can spread if the truth of grace is not preached. There are always people who are willing to look to laws as the measurement of how religious they are. Even restrictive regulations appeal to many well-meaning people (Col. 2:23).
Christians are called to be free--"but do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love" (Gal. 5:13). With freedom comes obligations, or else one person's freedom would infringe on another's. No one should have the freedom to preach other people into bondage, or to gain a following for themselves, or to make merchandise of God's people. Such divisive and anti-Christian behaviors are not allowed.
"The entire law is summed up in a single command," Paul says in verse 14: "Love your neighbor as yourself." This summarizes our responsibility toward one another. The opposite approach, fighting for self-advantage, is actually self-destructive (v. 15).
"So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature" (v. 16). The Spirit will lead us to love, not to self-centeredness. Selfish thoughts come from the flesh, but God's Spirit produces better thoughts. "The sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other" (v. 17).
Because of this conflict between Spirit and flesh, life does not always go smoothly. "You do not do what you want" (v. 17, last part). We sometimes sin, even though we don't want to. So what is the solution to the sins that so easily beset us? Bring back the law? No! "If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law" (v. 18). Our approach to life is different. We look to the Spirit, and the Spirit will develop in us the desire and the power to walk according to the commands of Christ. We keep the horse before the cart.
We look to Jesus first, and we see his commands in the context of personal loyalty to him, not as rules "that have to be kept or else we'll be punished." We have not come to Mount Sinai, where punishment is prominent. Rather, we have come to the heavenly Jerusalem, where joy and salvation are prominent, where the blood of Jesus speaks forgiveness (Heb. 12:18-24).
It is a different approach to worship, a different outlook on salvation. The commands of Christ are commands, but they are not like the old covenant laws that brought punishments.
The Spirit is leading us to become more like Jesus Christ, but this does not mean that we have to keep all the old covenant laws that he did. He was born under the law, but we are not under the law (Gal. 4:4; 5:18). We have a different situation, but the same Spirit will guide us in applying the law of love into our new situations. Rather than imitating the obsolete details of Jesus' life, we will obey what he commanded. We will look to the same Spirit. "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love" (v. 6).
In Galatians 5, Paul lists a variety of sins: "sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like" (v. 19-21). Some of these are behavioral, some are attitudinal, but all of them are self-centered and stem from a sinful heart.
Paul warns us sternly: "Those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God" (v. 21). This is not God's way of life; this is not the way we want to be; this is not the way we want the church to be.
Forgiveness is available for each of these (1 Cor. 6:9-11). Does that mean the church should close its eyes to sin? No, the church is not a cover, or safe sanctuary for such sins. The church is to be a place where grace and forgiveness is expressed and extended, not a place where sin is given permission to abound unchecked.
The church preaches against such sins, and we cannot fellowship with people who claim to be Christian and yet claim that they may continue in such sins (1 Cor. 5:11). Such people do not have a passion to confess their sins and seek God for grace to forgive and power to conquer. Instead, they excuse and justify their sins and seek to remain in them.
We cannot count such people as members in good standing. They may belong to Christ (that is his call, not ours), but we cannot fellowship with them. We should not let the bad yeast spread--and that applies to immoral and unethical life-styles on one side, and Judaizing on the other.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (Gal. 5:22-23). This is the product of a heart devoted to God. "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires" (v. 24). With the indwelling Spirit at work in us, we grow in the will and the power to reject the works of the flesh. We bear the fruit of God's work in us.
Paul's message is clear: We are not under the law--but we are not lawless. We are under the authority of Christ, under his law, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Our lives are based on faith, motivated by love, characterized by joy and peace and growth. "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit" (v. 25).
My prayers are with you, my friends. The Holy Spirit has taken us on quite a journey, and we do not know exactly what lies ahead. So keep the faith, keep up the good work and keep in step with the Spirit!
Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2000