Lawfully or Expediently

Criminal law is/was created to bring to justice those that are lawless within themselves.  Civil law was/is created to provide boundaries in which society can function.  It protects us from ourselves; because of this, we can naturally assume that the law will rise no higher than the base morality of society.  If this be true, can a Christian who only lives to the standard of man’s law expect himself/herself to be any different from mainstream society?  Can they really believe that they are separate from the world?  Can they hope to influence the world to true holiness?

“All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.”- I Corinthians 10:23

The apostle Paul’s (writer of the book of Corinthians) value system extends far beyond just what he deemed acceptable.  “All things lawful,” many things that Paul did not do, he could do according to the law.  By law (Greek law), he could eat meat offered to idols, by law he could serve golden images, by law he could fornicate.  When they accused him of preaching the gospel for money, he then refused to take money.  Why?  Not because the law made him.  When they tried to praise him as though a god for the miracles he performed; he tore his clothes and pointed them to the true God.  Why?  It was certainly not because of the law.  He represented something far greater than himself, and his own desires.  He was an ambassador for Christ, and a minister of the gospel.  The Bible never specifically says don’t go to the movie theater, or to school dances.  It never tells you to abstain from going to a house party and volunteering to be the DD.  “It denounces drunkenness but what about a little wine?”  All across Christendom today groups of “Christian” people are living to no higher standard than the pleasures they desire.  Justifying each and every action, with the perversion of scripture and paying preachers who will speak words that are as healing balm to hot sunburn; they have no concern for the long term effects, only a want for the burn to be gone.  Have we forgotten that all things are not expedient?  That all things edify not?  Have we forgotten about sacrifice?  Count this one thing for sure, if you have forgotten it; so will your children.    Drinking, dancing, fornicating, idol worship; are these things lawful or expedient?  Indeed they are lawful, when the pleasures that we long to enjoy are held up against the standard society sets, for the average individual it will be lawful.  However, we ought to ask ourselves are they expedient?  Will this profit Gods kingdom?  Will it edify and nourish the seed of holiness that God planted in my heart?

The Word of God can mold a man or woman, if we let it.  It can make us into something we never thought we could be, take us to places we never thought we would go; if we read it with a willing heart and a willing mind.  I submit to you that living to what is lawful i.e. living to what we justify as acceptable will only lead others to do the same.  I write to all, as I write to myself.  We must all ask ourselves, perhaps now more than ever; are we living to the standard of what is lawful?  Or, what is expedient; what is edifying?  We must ask ourselves do we want those behind us to live: lawfully or expediently?  So why bring this up?  Why bother pointing fingers, and drawing lines?  Why make waves?  Why? Because four Hebrew children changed Babylon by living expediently; not by living lawfully.