In a world where the lines between right and wrong are becoming blurrier within the 'modern culture' that we apply the Bible to, some concepts are becoming harder to understand and apply. I am constantly learning on a practical level how to live my life according to God's standards and of course, still a work in progress! There are many black and white truths in the Bible, but there are also some fundamental principles rather than commands with a simple right/wrong response. For example, drinking alcohol is not wrong in the Bible, but drunkenness is, so that's the spectrum of choice where some people decide not to drink at all, and some people choose to drink in moderation. Or tattoos... some people believe you shouldn't mark your body as a temple of the Holy Spirit and other Christians use tattoos with Bible verses as a potential conversation opener with non-Christians. So when there is such a Christian spectrum of opinion around us, and we are faced with making our own decisions about how to live our lives in the grey areas, how do we figure out our standard?
One way to look at this is changing the question from 'how far down the spectrum can we go without disobeying God?' to 'how far up the spectrum can I go so that I can experience God's BEST for me?' or 'how are we living as a light and witness for God’s kingdom?' or 'do we want people to look at us and see us as vastly different from the world or do we want to blend in?' I am as guilty as the next person of justifying 'oh this is okay because it's not actually doing XYZ' or 'well those people do the same or worse in this particular area so my choice/behaviour must be fine', but what I am learning is to not compare myself to other Christians, but to Jesus, and to focus on living the very best I can.
Another thing to consider is that choices have consequences - eg. Listening to explicit music isn’t inherently wrong, but what we hear influences our thoughts, feelings, mood and language so it’s just a choice that either has good consequences where we will feel encouraged, or bad consequences where we might notice more un-Godly thoughts or words infiltrating our mind. Another example is the physical boundaries you choose when dating, (other than the command to wait until marriage for sex) don't make you more or less spiritual, but the choices we make can either help protect our purity or put us in places where we could more easily fall into temptation. The enemy wants us to stumble - John 10:10a says 'the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy' so he will use whatever he can to trip us up. We can actually make life easier for ourselves by avoiding things that aren’t actually going to add value to our life. Avoiding temptation is not a fear mechanism, it's knowing when to use wisdom so that we can stay on God's best path for our lives.
1 Corinthians 6:12 and 19 says "All things are lawful for me but all things are not helpful….. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and you are not your own?” The reality is, when we choose Jesus as Lord over our life, we are called to “die to self”. Galatians 2:20 - "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me." With free will, we can do whatever we want. But if we have decided to live for Jesus and are trying to be more like Him, we need to ask the much more challenging question of ‘what does following Jesus and laying our life down really look like and are we, as Jesus's disciples, prepared to live each day for Jesus’? Honestly, I don’t always make wise choices whether it’s to do with modesty or serving my family or eating poorly and not taking care of my body. Sometimes even, in my selfishness/sin/rebellion, I don't even want to make 'good choices'. It's hard to stand out from 'the norm', it's isolating sometimes being the odd one out not participating in things I feel like is wrong, and many of the worldly pleasures seem very desirable! But if we keep reading John 10:10 we read "I have come so that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly". Life more abundant doesn't mean lots of money, lots of stuff and we can go out and do everything that our heart desires. Life more abundant means more lasting, God given joy and peace, the internal satisfaction from knowing we are following Christ, the eternal reward for our faithfulness, the beauty and depth in Godly relationships of all kinds and the good consequences of living by God's design. God is our Creator and our Designer - if we can trust Him to be good, faithful and our salvation, then we can trust that when we follow His plan and unique, perfect, intricate design for how we should live, then we will experience God's best for us.
It’s absolutely something that we all struggle with because without Christ, we are selfish, broken people. But I really encourage you, when we are faced with something that we are unsure is okay, rather than asking “is this okay?”, ask yourself “is this God’s best for me?”
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