The Jesus Standard Part 2

Part 2: Argument: We should teach people to abstain from Alcohol and impose other rules to raise the bar/standard in these people’s lives so they can be world changers. Real Christians will not drink alcohol, listen to secular music, watch R-rated movies, use tobacco products, nor will they hang out with those who do.

Answer: Some feel that because alcohol is so commonly abused we should just say, “do not touch!” Funny cause… Jesus never said it. They feel that while tobacco is never mentioned in the Bible, it has absolutely no health benefit and is known to cause cancer and is therefore a sin to use (hmm… another product of this description comes to mind…Soda Pop!).

If we use this same line of logic toward other areas of known abuse, for example gluttony, do we demand people to abstain from food? In that case everyone would be dead! Or how about the abuse of sex, would we demand everyone stop having sex? Hello extinction! What about prescription drugs? They’re abused! Should everyone get off their medication and never touch it again?

Where do you draw the line? Say no to the person who drinks alcohol in moderation, but say yes to the known glutton when it comes to serving in leadership? What kind of hypocritical standard is that???

Most of the time we go above the standards that Jesus set for us because of fear. We know people are weak and have a tendency to cave in to selfish desires and so it’s easier to demand them to abstain than it is to place personal responsibility on their shoulders to live a balanced life that Jesus actually called us to. That fear may or may not be rooted in personal weakness.

If we look at it from the “don’t do it cause you might sin” perspective then we will be cutting out a lot of things from our lives. How does this measure up to the “life to the full” statement that Jesus made in John 10:10? How does a life that is missing a bunch of pieces, because we’ve cut it out, measure up to “life to the full”?

Let me also say that this legalistic religious approach where we’re telling people they shouldn’t drink alcohol or listen to secular music is being proclaimed by the same people that watch movies that have cuss words, sexual innuendos, or worse depicted in them and they regularly abuse the Chinese buffet! Often times they have even bigger issues in their lives like sexual immorality, addictions, gossip, pride, and so on. Jesus has a word for this type of double standard and overly critical judgmental spirit…hmm… hypocrite.

Luke 11:46 Jesus replied, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.

It’s silly that these people want to impose rules on others when even Jesus didn’t. This so called “higher standard” for everyone to live up to doesn’t seem to keep these same people from having their own issues or help them or anyone else in dealing with them.

The Bible warns of this kind of standard and attitude… Colossians 2:20-23 20Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: 21"Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? 22These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. 23Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

This kind of non-scriptural legalism is described here as being based on human commands and teachings, having an appearance of wisdom, self-imposed, and lacking any value and due to all of this it is destined to perish.

Do we really think God came to give us a big list of do’s and do not’s? He already did that and we couldn’t live up to it! There is right and wrong, but it’s supposed to be done out of love for God and conscience not some man-made list of rules. Jesus said the whole law was summed up in two commands “Love God” and “Love your neighbor” (Mark 12). Hmm, what about music, movies, food, technology, and all these other issues we’re going to have to face?

There are rights and wrongs and they are more issues of how not what. Sex is an issue of how it’s done, not if it’s done. Food and Drink is an issue of how it’s done, not if it’s done. Dress is an issue of how it’s done, not if it’s done. What’s our motivation, is it a demonstration of love or selfishness?

Paul addressed the issue like this: Romans 14:1-4 1Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. 2One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. 4Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

Note first of all that there are “disputable matters” (Vs 1). Secondly, note that we’re not to pass judgment. Thirdly, note: in this scripture who is of weaker faith, the one whose faith allows him to eat all foods or the one whose faith leads him to abstain?

The issue here is being led by the Spirit within and making sure that we use the biblical standard of 1Corinthians 10:31 (So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God), to compare our life with and make sure our motives are right.

You may want tell people they shouldn’t entertain non-Christian literature, music, movies, and so on, but even Paul was familiar enough with the non-Christian literature that he could quote it (Acts 17:28 As some of your own (Athenian) poets have said, 'We are his offspring.') and some of it was even from other religions (Titus 1:12-13 Even one of their own prophets has said, "Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons." 13This testimony is true.).

You can say that YOU don’t like people to drink alcohol, but you can’t say it’s wrong. Jesus drank alcohol and ate with the wrong crowd to such a degree that he was called a “drunkard, glutton, and friend of sinners.” (Matthew 11:19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ' But wisdom is proved right by her actions.") Notice that last phrase, “wisdom is PROVED RIGHT by her actions”? What is Jesus talking about? He’s talking about something that makes us very uncomfortable.

It’s so much easier to just teach abstinence from all things potentially misused or abused, but the problem is where do you draw the line and who is it that makes the rules, since Jesus didn’t. In fact, not only did Jesus regularly eat and drink (alcoholic wine mind you) with the wrong people, but also his first miracle was to turn water in to wine, and not just a little! Scholars tell us it was between 120 to 180 gallons of wine. Here Jesus is hanging out at a wedding. The party has been going on for some time to the point that the host runs out of wine. You can’t tell me these people weren’t feeling a buzz. Then Jesus makes more, a whole lot more, of the best wine they had ever tasted! Was he endorsing drunkenness? Was he condemning them to hell? Was he sinning? The obvious answer is NO (Don’t even waste your time saying, “Well it was alcohol free wine.” Please, these people know the difference between the BEST wine and grape juice. This was an important statement God was making in making this the first miracle of Jesus’ ministry)!

Oh, there are lots and lots of guidelines and commands in the Bible to direct us in the proper use of every aspect of life, and we ARE to abide by them, but we are not to make up more rules. This was the sin of the Pharisee’s. They elevated their man-made rules to the same level (or higher) as God’s commands. (Matthew 15). Jesus wasn’t pleased. He was angry and condemned them and their teaching! Go read it!

Many will quote Romans 14:13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way. But, the thing to remember is this stumbling block goes both ways. Those who know there freedoms must be careful, but so should those who want to live a stricter more rule oriented lifestyle. Those who don’t feel such freedom are not to judge those who do, nor are they to impose their religious rules upon others.

The inconsistent application of the legalistic standard these people want to impose just makes them look more like a hypocritical Pharisee instead of more like Jesus. You can’t drink alcohol, but you can drink pop, which is worse for you from a health perspective. You can’t drink alcohol, but you can abuse the all you can eat buffet. You don’t want people to be in leadership if they drink alcohol or smoke or chew, but you’ll over eat, look at porn, have sex outside of marriage. How can you judge and impose inconsistent standards. You’ll say don’t use a non-Christian song or video to share the gospel with others, but you’ll rent or buy movies that are far worse in content than either of the above mentioned.

This type of behavior doesn’t make us look good. It makes us look like hypocrites. And being legalistic, making up a bunch of man made rules or making our personal convictions into rules, is not making us more like Jesus it’s making us more like the hypocritical religious Pharisees.

There is nothing wrong with personal convictions; in fact that is what makes Christianity a personal walk with Jesus. There are fundamental truths that we adhere to, but there are a lot of areas where Jesus knows what is best for us as individuals, what we can and can’t handle, and it may not be the same for your neighbor, and we’re not to try to make them abide by this personal conviction because it’s not them with the problem.

I’m not making this stand to justify personal compromise. In spite of the fact that the scripture teaches that a person can drink alcoholic beverages and it’s not wrong, I have a personal conviction that I shouldn’t drink alcohol, but I don’t push this conviction on other people. I teach what the Bible teaches about alcohol, that the abuse is wrong, just as I teach what the Bible says about food, that the abuse is wrong, and sex, that the abuse is wrong. I do not teach abstinence from these things, I teach abstinence from the abuse of these things and the abuse is engaging in these things outside of what God says is the standard of what is right (the appropriate behavior) in a specific area.

For some reason my approach rubs a lot of people the wrong way. They want me to teach people to abstain from alcohol altogether, but they don’t expect me to teach people to abstain from food, sex, money, words, tv, music, medication, cars, guns, or any of the other many things that are abused/misused. They want me to make a right or wrong out of something that isn’t a right or wrong issue.

Why isn’t the Bible good enough? Why isn’t Jesus’ standard of proper use and moderation good enough for us? Why do we feel the need to impose (out of fear or some other wrong reason) rules that God didn’t give, just like Adam did to Eve, and look where that got us. More rules doesn’t make anything better, just look at the lives of those who are clamoring for this “higher standard”.

We’re not justifying sin or saying there are NO RULES! By all means, hold fast to, teach, enforce, and live out the rules or standards the Bible gives us and in NO WAY compromise them, but don’t start judging others because in the area of “Disputable Matters” (Romans 14:1) people don’t see things your way or want to live up to your personal convictions. That’s not going to make them or you more like Jesus anyway! It’s going to make them more like YOU or turn away from the faith! Live out your personal convictions with great discipline and zeal in the grey areas, but don’t push them on to other people. Accept that there is flexibility in some areas.

Let’s truly ask the question, how close can we get to Jesus, and stick with the Jesus standard.

What will it look like? In a lot of areas it’ll look the same from one person to the next, but in a lot of other areas it’ll look very different. What are we to do? Love one another, pray, share, hold one another to the indisputable standards, and trust Jesus for the rest!

This isn’t easy or comfortable. It leaves a lot in the hands of the individual believer. It forces us to trust Jesus that he knows what he’s doing.

Sacred Vs Secular

Among churched folk (and those who were once unchurched, but have spent enough time around churched folk) there is a tendency to separate the sacred (with/for God) from the secular (without/against God). In other words to look at a thing, experience, activity, or whatever and judge it (right or wrong, for better or for worse) by some inward standard of whether it is holy or evil, right or wrong, good or bad, God or the devil.

The problem, and thus the error, we often fall into is our standards are flawed by three major blinders 1) Our prejudices (perhaps born of fear), 2) Our preferences, and 3) Our limitedness (fallibility and ignorance). There is a fourth, our Pride, but that is a whole other subject of which all 3 of these falls into.

I do not separate parts of our Christian life as sacred (with/for God) and parts of it as secular (without/against God). I fully admit that in the world there are things sacred and things secular, but as a Christian all of our life is sacred and every thing we do is meant to honor God and please Him.

So, let me make three statements and then give some real life examples.

1. God made everything! The days, nights, stars, animals, people, and every detail of these things. Though these and many other things of God's creation are abused by misuse, idolatry, perversion, and so on does not negate the good, necessity, and God-ordained purpose & practice of these things.

2. God also came in the flesh on a mission to redeem this misused, abused, and perverted creation (all of it) and called all of His followers to engage in the same mission. We’re called to redeem and reclaim that which has been stolen and destroyed, and take it back for God’s glory and kingdom. As God engages the world to take that which is meant for evil and use it for good, so should we.

3. God did also declare a standard of right and wrong, of how these creations were meant to operate, function, and be used, and he declares in the book of Isaiah, "Woe to the ones who call right wrong and wrong right!" (Don’t be too quick to yell “Amen” just yet!)

Example: Sex! Does God declare a standard of what is right or wrong concerning the function/experience of sex? Yes! Is there misuse, abuse, and perversion of this God designed function/experience? Yes! Does the misuse, abuse, and perversion negate, invalidate, or make sex wrong or evil? No!

You see, the misuse, abuse, and perversion is wrong, and perhaps you could say evil, but the proper use/application of this God created function/experience is not only good or great, it's beautiful, right, holy, and of God (a blessing from him and is blessed by him).

Here is the problem. We tend to focus in on surface issues and judge the whole. We declare the whole apple tree bad because of a couple bad apples. We'll focus in on a specific abuse of sexuality say, homosexuality, or child molestation, or premarital sex, or adultery and turn around and have a negative view/attitude toward all of sex. We act as though sex was created by the devil. We act as though sex is wrong and have a huge distaste for the subject. In some areas we even question how a person could be a Christian and practice such foul behavior.

You can apply this to so many broad subjects such as Alcohol, Sex, Entertainment, Holidays, Music, Technology, and so on.

But here is where I want to see transformation.

Instead of looking at the negative and finding the worst in something, instead of giving the devil and sin glory by preaching how bad something is or how disgusting and wrong something is, let's focus on the God side.

For example: Halloween. Here is a holiday that has been perverted by many people throughout the years, yet it started out as a "Christian Religion" holiday and has more roots in Christianity than the Christmas and Easter holidays.

Many Christians view Halloween as the "Devils day" and as a bad thing. It certainly can be argued that it has been perverted and come to that, but in all truth, whose day is it really? Who made October 31? God did! Do you think he made it for the devils glory? Do you think we as Christians should declare that day as the "devils day" or declare it as "God's Day"?

Sacred or Secular... as a Christian is there supposed to be a difference in our life? Is there supposed to be certain things in our life that are sacred (Godly, holy, right, and good, with/for God) and other things in our life that are secular (ungodly, impure, wrong, and bad/evil, without/against God)? The answer is simple. No!

See, sacred is who you are not what you do. And because it's WHO you are it changes WHAT you do into being sacred. As a Christ follower you want to do everything in word and deed for the Glory of Jesus (Colossians 3:17) . In other words, live a sacred lifestyle so that everything you do is sacred (pleasing to/for the Lord).

Sex now becomes a sacred experience because you're approaching it from God's perspective and according to God's Standard. The same is true for eating, speaking, music, food, holidays… you name it.

Am I saying that you're turning evil things into good or calling good evil? Like saying that something God calls wrong (gluttony) is now right and okay? Not at all! What I'm saying is that we are now going to approach and handle that area of our life according to God's Standard and enjoy the sacred side of food & eating without the abuse, misuse, and perversion (which is what gluttony is).

You can't take something that is blatantly wrong by Gods standard and call it right (such as premarital sex), but you can stop and look at the original God intended purpose and function of that thing (sex within marriage between a man and a woman) and rejoice in and practice it properly. In doing this you are not only communicating the gospel, but you are demonstrating the life God want us to experience, and you are reclaiming/redeeming what rightfully belongs to God and his kingdom, but was stolen by the devil. Sex, music, food, drink, language, technology, holidays, you name it… none of it belongs to the devil! It all belongs to God and should be used and experienced to his Glory and Pleasure. This is called “life to the full” or the “abundant life” that Jesus talked about in John 10:10.

Most of our "Sacred Vs. Secular" arguments are shallow and based on prejudices, preferences, and ignorance (limited understanding on the matter). Like Rock Music Vs. Classical style. We argue one style is sacred and the other secular (one holy/with/for God and the other unholy/without/against God), but God created music, period! All music belongs to him. Yes, there is abuse, misuse, and perversion of music out there, in all styles, but it doesn't mean we just condemn all music made in that style, and we certainly should not condemn it just because it's not a style to our liking. Do you condemn tomatoes and all who eat them as of the devil because you don’t like them?

God made everything and the things that God inspired man to "create" were moments that man was imitating our Heavenly Father, but when we took God's creation or the God-inspired creations of man and perverted, abused, and misused them, that is what made them secular, before that they were all sacred.

See, the same light bulb used in the church building, the same electrical outlet in the church building or your house, the same toilet paper in the church building or your house, they are all the same ones used in the strip club. Is the church or your house using secular light bulbs, electrical outlets, and toilet paper? Or do they order special holy & blessed bulbs, outlets, and toilet paper? Or is the strip club using sacred bulbs, outlets, and toilet paper? No! The sacred or secular is all in the proper or improper application; it’s all a heart issue.

My grandma used to say two sayings, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water." and "Don't throw out the whole bushel, just because of a few bad apples."

How long will we quickly judge and condemn a God-created activity/experience, labeling it secular, and loose out on the sacred robbing ourselves of the life God intended us to experience?

How many ways, in how many areas, have we cut ourselves short by a false religious standard created out of a mans ignorance, prejudice, fear, or preference instead of Gods Word?

When will we say, "enough is enough, I'm not going to allow the devil to steal from me all God created and has for me!"? Whether he steals it through literal perversion, misuse, or abuse, or whether he steals by way of a distorted false religious standard based out of mans ignorance, prejudice, and preference.

Is your life sacred or secular? Is it full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Is it in line with the truth of Gods Word? Are you approaching life narrow-mindedly with religious (but unbiblical) standards and perspectives of holiness, righteousness, and spirituality?

Jesus said, I came to give you life and life to the full!(John 10) It is written that all things have been made pure through the blood of Jesus (Acts 10) and that we are to do everything to the glory of God! (Col 3)

I think many of us will be surprised to find out that God doesn't carry our perspective, preference, or prejudice toward a good many things in our world. To bad because the first thing I’d do is get rid of country music. Ha! ☺

Let's get back to His Word and do things his way!