Everyone of us has screwed up. Whether it’s intentional or not, it happens on a daily basis. However, in chapter 6 I believe that Paul is stressing the importance of not holding yourself accountable by the world’s standards, but instead by God’s standards. It is very hard as Christians to maintain a Christ like image all the time. We all have weaknesses that we struggle with. That is why it is crucial that we find a fellow brother or sister in Christ that will hold us accountable for our actions. Find someone that isn’t afraid to get in your face when you’re about to do something stupid and say “hey man, you really don’t want to do that.” Because what happens when we don’t have those accountability partners is instead we get friends that don’t know the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and they encourage us to do the things we know are wrong because they hold themselves to the world’s standards instead of God’s standards. They look for worldly things to fix their problems. They will persuade you to have a drink or smoke a cigarette when you’re stressed out, or they’ll convince you to watch something that you really shouldn’t be watching, or put yourself in a compromising situation with a guy or a girl because “you only live once”. Those are not the people you need to be asking to help you do the right thing.
I love the Message version of verse 12: “Just because something is technically legal doesn’t mean that it’s spiritually appropriate…” You need Christians who are sensitive to God’s spirit who will encourage you to read your Bible, pray with you and for you, physically remove you from tempting situations even if they’re legal situations, and will discourage you from taking advantage of worldly opportunities to fix problems. You need people around you who are not afraid to tell you that just because you’re old enough to drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes or have sex with whoever doesn’t mean that God permits it. If you don’t have an accountability partner---find one but make sure they’re in tune with God’s spirit and hold you to God’s standards and above the world’s standards.
Love yall,
Bri
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Sure because God gave us free will we can do anything that we want to. Here's the thing though. We are not our own. We belong to Jesus. He bought us to live inside of us. Therefore we need to honor Him with everything that we do. Just ask yourself would I ask Jesus to do this with me? If not, then we shouldn't do it either.
ReplyDelete