No Apologies

I read an article a few weeks ago that was written by a Nazarene preacher.  He was lamenting the fact that we are so often apologetic about holiness.  People ask us what we believe and we tell them as if we're sorry for it.  We try to avoid the fact that Scripture does not condone sin in any form.  We do everything we can to keep from having to teach that we must live a sanctified life.  We don't want to have to tell people that God has called us to be holy.

My new year's resolution for this year is to teach the truth of the Bible (yes, we must be holy) without making apology for it (Not that I've ever been accused of apologizing).  I am well aware that those who are living in sin can't stand the idea that God has called us to live above sin and made provision for us to do so through Jesus Christ.  I know that they call those who teach that truth arrogant and prideful.  I make no pretense about the fact that the church culture of our day looks down on those who endeavor to live "in the Spirit." 

Since when did those people set the standard?  When did the truth of the Word of God become contingent on whether or not we like it, or agree with it?  The culture may be changing around us.  We know that the culture within the church has changed.  We like to water things down to the point that nobody really knows what we stand for.  Doctrinal teaching may or may not drive people away (I'll never be convinced that it does), but the truth is still the truth.  The words that have been inspired by our Holy God are still our sustenance.  They still keep us and for that fact we should make no apology.

Holy Standard

Against what do we measure our spiritual lives? How do you know that your relationship with God is growing and maturing? I would contend that within holiness movements the standard against which we measure ourselves has become increasingly low. Rather than using the Word of God as our guide, we want to compare ourselves to the atheist who lives next door.

"I'm not perfect, but I'm not as bad as that guy," we tell ourselves. We are always on the lookout for those who are living far below the standard to which God has called us. They give us a great excuse to live beneath the holy standards of God's chosen people. I cannot even count the number of times that I've heard people excuse themselves with, "It's not like I've killed someone."

Here's a fact: If you are not living God's commands, and growing in a relationship with Him, it is like you've killed someone. It's exactly like that. Jesus died to SAVE US FROM our sin. I can't find anyplace in Scripture that would lead us to believe that He died to save us in our sin. Yet, we continue to live in sin. I read a blog by an emerging church leader just last week that claims that it's alright for homosexuals to serve in the church. He began his claim by asking readers to ignore the verses in the Bible that speak directly about homosexuality so that we can debate it from a philosophical perspective. Why can't we debate it from a biblical perspective? Homosexuality is not the only issue that some try to deal with in this way. We eliminate what the Bible says about divorce with regularity. We want to look at everything from our perspective and not from God's. If we eliminate His Word all that we're left with is our opinion.

Again I ask, against what do you measure your spiritual life? I would suggest that it should be God's Word.