Musing – Do we rationalize disobedience?

Hebraic Musing – Do we rationalize disobedience?

Should we be looking for ways to rationalize that it’s OK to disobey God, or should we instead be looking for opportunities to Obey Him?[1]  In ‘red letters’ Jesus said --

·      "If you love Me, keep My commandments.” John 14:15 NKJV

·      “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.”  John 15:10 NKJV

The answer is not as easy as it sounds while we are living in this world, and especially in these times. Why do we hear things like –

·      “God’s Word is true, but this particular promise or principal no longer applies; it was meant for either a past or future generation.”  

·      “Politics are dirty, and we should not take part in them.” 

·      “That’s a secular issue, it doesn’t concern us if it’s not sacred (spiritual) issue?”

·      “Everyone else is doing it”

·      “Surely He did not mean for ‘everlasting’ ordinances to apply in today’s world!”
    (How many times when He gave us His Word did He say ‘everlasting’?)[2]

·      “Well, we honor Sunday as our Sabbath. We have to because everyone else does it.”

Have you heard similar examples recently of denials or watering down of His Words to us?

Now, are up ready for a tough one?   How many times have you heard the church trying to be PC and loving by saying “God hates the sin but loves the sinner”? Is that a modern PC lie?  God says in Ps 5:5 “The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong.”  And 14 times in the first 50 Psalms we see God’s hatred toward sinners, his wrath toward liars…[3]   After John 3:16 comes John 3:36  “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."  (I warned you it was a tough one!)

Points to Ponder

Where might we have rationalized our way out of obedience to God’s Word?

Shalom

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                                     May 28, 2013

Author of two books “Hebraic Insights” and  “Biblical Marriage”

And weekly e-mails “Hebraic Musings”  Yosef1@cox.net  or  www.InsightsByYosef.com

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[1] Inspired by Buddy Hanson on May 13, 2013

[2] I have heard it said that the OT is no longer applicable based on Mt. 5:17 Matt 5:17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” However if we continue reading Matt 5:18 “I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”  And our work on earth is not finished/accomplished yet.

[3] Radical   by David Platt, Chapter 2