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.
