Being Good or Being Blameless

Should We Be Good?

 

The real question is should we be good, or should we be blameless? What do each of these mean? What's the difference, and why does it matter? Let's investigate. I'll give you the scripture that got me thinking.

Psalm 101

Of David. A psalm.

¹ I will sing of your love and justice;
    to you, Lord, I will sing praise.
² I will be careful to lead a blameless life—
    when will you come to me?

I will conduct the affairs of my house
    with a blameless heart.
³ I will not look with approval
    on anything that is vile.

I hate what faithless people do;
    I will have no part in it.
⁴ The perverse of heart shall be far from me;
    I will have nothing to do with what is evil.

⁵ Whoever slanders their neighbor in secret,
    I will put to silence;
whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart,
    I will not tolerate.

⁶ My eyes will be on the faithful in the land,
    that they may dwell with me;
the one whose walk is blameless
    will minister to me.

⁷ No one who practices deceit
    will dwell in my house;
no one who speaks falsely
    will stand in my presence.

⁸ Every morning I will put to silence
    all the wicked in the land;
I will cut off every evildoer
    from the city of the Lord.

 

This Psalm states that it is from King David, a man who was rescued by God many times, disciplined by God, reinstated by God, and blessed by God as the King over His people. In this chapter we see that he made a conscious choice to separate himself from evil men (people) and that as king he would see to it that the evil were not blessed or allowed into his presence to seek help. He states that "I will be careful to lead a blameless life". We know that, for the most part he did that, but several times he failed and committed sins that affected not only himself, but his family and his kingdom. God is very mindful of such promises that we make to Him. We know that the only people that are blameless are Jesus and those that He personally can call His own; those that confess that He is Lord and confess their sins to Him, and are purified by His blood.

 

We should have no pride in doing "good".

 

Deuteronomy 6

New International Version (NIV) http://www.biblegateway.com/

Love the Lord Your God

6 These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, ² so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. ³ Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

⁴ Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.^{[a] 5} Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

¹⁰ When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, ¹¹ houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, ¹² be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

¹³ Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. ¹⁴ Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; ¹⁵ for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land. ¹⁶ Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah. ¹⁷ Be sure to keep the commands of the Lord your God and the stipulations and decrees he has given you. ¹⁸ Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and take over the good land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors, ¹⁹ thrusting out all your enemies before you, as the Lord said.

 

Doing good here is clearly defined as obeying the laws that God gave to Moses for the people of Israel to follow. The laws were designed to be good and to keep the people from sinning, but they did not have the power to accomplish that. Why? Because our will is ours alone. If we choose to sin and disobey, we face the consequences of our decisions and our actions.

 

So, in reality, we should make every effort to be "good" and to do what is right. But we also need to know that in our own weaknesses, we cannot. So we need Jesus to help and strengthen us and wash and cleanse us, so we can be blameless. It is impossible on our own.

 

Galatians 6

⁷ Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. ⁸ Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. ⁹ Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. ¹⁰ Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

 

So our focus needs to be on walking in the Spirit and watching for opportunities to do good and be kind to others so that we honor and bring glory to Jesus and to God. We should also be united with other believers so that we encourage and strengthen each other. In that we have hope.



No Compromise ( Living a Godly Life )

No Compromise

 

 

 

Back in the late 1970's I had the pleasure of meeting a contemporary Christian music artist named Keith Green. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Green ). I really enjoyed his music and saw him at an outdoor concert and festival in Oregon. Some friends and I were able to meet him as he was walking around the festival. He lived his life just as he sang, with No Compromise, which was the name of a really good album that he had out at that time. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0snyPIp6m-U&list=ALBTKoXRg38BA6CB3sm345FX5yk-lmMPje ) He shared some personal thoughts with us and made quite an impression on me. I can speak to the fact that this is the way God wants us to be, living examples of what He has called us to be. The only way we can do that is by living with no excuses, and no compromise. It is all around us and it is our job to filter it out of daily life. We do that by our choices and our actions. They need to reflect everything that we believe.

 

 

Psalm 119: ⁹ How can a young person stay on the path of purity?
    By living according to your word.
¹⁰ I seek you with all my heart;
    do not let me stray from your commands.
¹¹ I have hidden your word in my heart
    that I might not sin against you.
¹² Praise be to you, Lord;
    teach me your decrees.
¹³ With my lips I recount
    all the laws that come from your mouth.

 

So there you have it. The key is learning His Ways and putting them to memory. We do this by reading and studying His Word. We do this through prayer. Just ask and He will guide your paths and help you say "no" to sin. Temptation is not sin, unless we say "yes" when we are tempted. We need His strength and His help to continue to live sin-free. We worship and sing His praises and show our love and commitment to Him through our voices. We also walk free through sharing. When we share what we have learned with others, we also remind ourselves.

 

 

Hebrews 7: ²⁵ Therefore he (Jesus) is able to save completely^[c] those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

²⁶ Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. ²⁷ Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. ²⁸ For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.

Jesus is our example of how to live. He lively a holy and pure life, and so should we. Can we? NO. We can be perfect through His grace, though. And we can continue in His grace as long as we are not deliberately continuing in sin, or a path or pattern of sin. There should be a clear difference between the life we lived before we knew Him and who we are as Christians.

Hebrews 10: ²⁶ If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, ²⁷ but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. ²⁸ Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ²⁹ How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? ³⁰ For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”^[d] and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”^{[e] 31} It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

 

Hebrews 10: ³⁶ You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. ³⁷ For,

“In just a little while,
    he who is coming will come
    and will not delay.”^[f]

³⁸ And,

“But my righteous^[g] one will live by faith.
    And I take no pleasure
    in the one who shrinks back.”^[h]

³⁹ But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

So, No Compromise needs to be our motto. Call it living by faith, being set apart, being godly, etc. It doesn't matter what you call it, but we need to be an example for others to follow, and we can't do that if we are riddled with examples of falling into or continuing in the sinful nature. We need to fall on Him, so He can take us and fix us and prepare us to spread His Gospel. Let's take hold of His Calling and set the example.

All scriptures are courtesy of http://www.biblegateway.com/ , the NIV version.