"Obedience to God's Word rebukes the world"...read this quote in a book of John Macarhturs' recently and have been dwelling on it all morning. How will a world note a difference in followers of Christ if we look no different. I have been pondering this thing of "obedience" after a long discussion recently over the consumption of alcohol. I have thought long and hard about this particular debate amongst brothers and sisters of the faith and non-believers. I have no harsh condemnations for those who consume or don't consume alcohol, scripture does not condemn the consumption of alcohol in moderation; however, all of scripture calls out followers of Christ to live differently than the rest of the world for one purpose...that purpose is to Glorify God with our lives.
We have somehow become very confused in our mindsets as believers that life here on earth is about us, our wants, our happiness, our desires...but where in scripture does God indicate that any of those things are more important than His Glory? Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart." We often forget the first part of this verse which states, "Delight yourself in the Lord..." So what does delighting ourselves in the Lord look like? I think we could look at Psalm 119 and begin to catch a glimpse. The Psalmist gives 176 verses of ways we can delight ourselves in the Lord, and most of them are committing our ways to His. "Trouble and anguish have come upon me; yet thy commandments are my delight." When we face issues of our culture such as the consumption of alcohol, I think we can look at the way God calls us to live holy and set-apart lives to determine whether we should or shouldn't do something...not necessarily calling it wrong, but sacrificing something for the cause of Christ. When we would rather appease ourselves for our own happiness rather than neglect the wants and desires of the flesh, we have missed the point of WHO God has called us to be. He has called us to live in obedience to the HIGH CALLING of being one of HIS DISCIPLES, and this most often requires a noticeable difference in the way we live our lives.
If "obedience to God's Word rebukes the world" is it worth it to stand out in your obedience to His word in order for the world to notice a difference...we are talking about the difference in people who are lost noticing and wondering why. A set-apart life stands out in the midst of this crooked and depraved world.
No comments:
Post a Comment