There are even some Christians...
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There are even some Christians who give us laws that must be kept. For example, some denominations insist that you should avoid drinking and smoking and dancing. They have a list of "don'ts." Not that we can do anything we want and please God. But we must be careful not to make laws that must be obeyed before we can please our Lord. We must obey laws only because we love the Lord who gave them to us and not just to earn his love.
The purpose of God's law is to let us know what things please or do not please him. We like to know what pleases our mate and do what they want to make him or her happy, don't we? So if we love God, we want to know what he wants us to do. We can search the scriptures to find out or go to church and ask the pastor or Bible class leader. Our parents let us know what they would like us to do, but whatever it is we are still their beloved child. The only thing we may do aside from counting on them for love and forgiveness is to deliberately ignore or reject what we know they want from us.
Even in our law courts it can make a difference if we truly confess our sins and show sorrow for them. But ignorance of the law is no excuse, and we should not make excuses. That goes for God also! That is one reason we read our Bible and go to church so -- we can learn what pleases and displeases God and confess our sins to him and receive his forgiveness.
There is no use boasting about how good a person we are. It is a temptation to look around us or watch TV and tell God (or whoever will listen) that we are really not as bad as those other terrible people. If we look hard, we can always find people worse than us -- maybe even fellow church members. There is always danger of becoming a latter-day Pharisee who brags about how good we are and how much better we are than those sinners out there. We are all sinners saved by grace.
But we are judged by our faith. That is what we need to work on so that we may become stronger every week.
The purpose of God's law is to let us know what things please or do not please him. We like to know what pleases our mate and do what they want to make him or her happy, don't we? So if we love God, we want to know what he wants us to do. We can search the scriptures to find out or go to church and ask the pastor or Bible class leader. Our parents let us know what they would like us to do, but whatever it is we are still their beloved child. The only thing we may do aside from counting on them for love and forgiveness is to deliberately ignore or reject what we know they want from us.
Even in our law courts it can make a difference if we truly confess our sins and show sorrow for them. But ignorance of the law is no excuse, and we should not make excuses. That goes for God also! That is one reason we read our Bible and go to church so -- we can learn what pleases and displeases God and confess our sins to him and receive his forgiveness.
There is no use boasting about how good a person we are. It is a temptation to look around us or watch TV and tell God (or whoever will listen) that we are really not as bad as those other terrible people. If we look hard, we can always find people worse than us -- maybe even fellow church members. There is always danger of becoming a latter-day Pharisee who brags about how good we are and how much better we are than those sinners out there. We are all sinners saved by grace.
But we are judged by our faith. That is what we need to work on so that we may become stronger every week.
