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Friday, August 20, 2010

You Should Strive To Do Right and Avoid Wrong - Not True

One of the worst and yet most prevalent lies I’ll present in this book is this one. The idea that we should focus on improving our behavior so that we avoid doing wrong and consistently do right seems to be the mindset of most of Christians in the contemporary church world. Most ministries are devoted to helping people know how to act better and avoid sin in an attempt to do what they imagine God wants them to do.

The problem with this belief is that it misses the point entirely. God’s purpose for mankind isn’t that we do good things and avoid doing evil. Don’t misunderstand me on this point. Of course, it’s better to do a good thing than a bad one in terms of the consequences the action will produce. That’s what makes this lie so easy to believe. However, God’s primary interest in our actions isn't about right and wrong. It never has been.

When God created Adam and Eve, do you think His purpose for them would be to do good and avoid evil? From a moral standpoint, that seems to make perfect sense. The problem is that the Bible presents a very different scenario. Our Creator never intended for our lives to be understood from a moral standpoint.

When the first couple was placed into the Garden of Eden, they were told they could eat from any tree in the garden except The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They were plainly warned not to eat from that tree. Eating from it would bring death.

Take a careful look at the description of the tree. It was a tree that gave knowledge of two things. What were they? Good and evil, or to put it a different way, right and wrong. This was a tree that would activate morality if they were to eat from it. It would give them the knowledge of good and evil and, after all, right and wrong are the two great pillars of morality. Moral living leads one toward doing right and away from doing wrong. Immoral living has just the opposite effect.

As strange as it might seem, before they ate from the tree, Adam and Eve’s lives weren’t moral. Neither were they immoral. Their lives didn’t exist in the realm of morality. By virtue of their oneness with their Creator, their lives were miraculous. Their actions transcended rightness. Their behavior was righteous.

So when God put them in this garden, He told them not to eat from that tree at all. Notice that He did not say, “Eat from the good branch on the tree but be sure to avoid the evil branch.” No, God told them not to eat from the tree at all. Their lives weren’t to be based on morality. He had a better plan for them than that. Their lives were to be an expression of their relationship to Him. As they trusted Him as their life-source, their behavior would always honor Him.

But it was not to be that way. They chose to eat from the forbidden tree and, as a result, the template by which humanity began to live by was one of right and wrong – good and evil. Man began to evaluate his every action by right and wrong, despite the fact that God had told them that was not to be the way they lived.

Fast-forward many millennia later and where do we find ourselves today? Living from that same tree. Even those who desire to honor God with their lives commonly think that the way to do that is to do right and avoid wrong. Churches sound forth that message again and again. The idea that God’s goals for us revolve around our doing good and not evil is pervasive in the modern church.

The reality is, though, that God didn’t change His mind. His intent for you is the same one that He had for Adam and Eve. He doesn’t want you building your life around a system in which you try to do good and avoid evil. He wants you to recognize that your lifestyle is to flow from your connection to your Creator. Like Adam and Eve before the fall, when our lifestyle is an expression of the union we share with Him our behavior will be better than good. It will be godly.

Don’t think that doing the right thing necessarily honors your Father. The Bible says that whatever is not of faith is sin. (See Romans 14:23) So a person can do many good things, moral things, and still be committing sin because their actions from the wrong source. The Source of our lives is to be Him, not our determination to behave in a certain way, even if it is good.

I’m not suggesting that it doesn’t matter how we behave. To the contrary, I’m saying just the opposite. It does matter how we behave, but our Father doesn’t intend for our behavior to revolve around rules of right and wrong. He wants our behavior to be an expression of His indwelling Life, coming out through our thoughts, our words and our actions. He wants to animate our lifestyle, not some sterile list that tells us how to act right.

Most believers understand this to some extent. They’ll say to an unbeliever, “It’s not about how you behave. Christianity is all about trusting Jesus Christ! That’s what matters.” The sad thing is that they don’t see that the same thing is true for themselves. Let me say it to those who are believers that are reading this book: “It’s not about how you behave either! Christianity is all about trusting Jesus Christ. That’s what matters!”

You don’t have to be worried that your behavior will jump track and you’ll run off into a crevice of sinful living. When we stop focusing on right and wrong and start focusing on Jesus Christ and Him alone, I assure you that His Spirit within us will regulate our behavior. He will see to it that we act in the way that honors our Father to the max, and it won’t be moral living either. It will be nothing short of a miraculous lifestyle.

7 comments:

  1. Steve,

    Could you give us an update on your wife (for those of us who aren't on Facebook)?

    Thanks!

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  2. Thank you for asking. I hadn't thought about the fact that some people read the blog but aren't connected to me on FB.

    The surgery went well and the doctor said he accomplished what he intended to do. Melanie is progressing slowly - very slowly, but it is progress! She hurts a lot but is walking with a walker and getting better each day. The doctor assures us that she'll be driving again in 3 weeks. It's hard to imagine that now, but that's what he assures us will happen.

    Thanks for your prayers and concern!

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  3. Bravo! He revealed this very same thing to me over this last year. Such a blessing to see Father revealing this very freeing truth to his children.

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  4. In the principles of life I see no law to keep. In fact,'I through the law am dead to the law,' that I might live Christ. I see desire, grace, and love like a circle with no ending just a beginning; permanence in relationship if I continue persevering too: all freedoms which expose God's abundant living inside. We can be generous on all occasions knowing God is. If I continue in the present receiving and obeying (John 1:12) Him I'm on good secure ground too ( a miraculous life.) I take the ins and outs and take heed to myself lest I fall and walk on knowing its not a moral life others see or will see but a VERVE in the struggle for living. In tribulations my joy knows no bounds. Ministry is life. Paul wrote, "we are always given over to death for YOUR SAKES AND THE GOSPEL, that the life also may be YOURS. WE CAN BE A SWEET AROMA OF LIFE UNTO LIFE TO ONE ANOTHER! Excellent Steve! You're confirming what I believe re: the two trees.

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  5. Thank you for posting! You found a way to express what I was meditating on this morning, and trying to convey to someone else. I am going to send this link to the person I was sharing with-your words make it so much plainer than mine accomplished. =)

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  6. Hi Steve
    Thank you for you post! Here are a few thoughts that I believe concur with yours, just from a different perspective! I believe as you that Jesus has finished his work! When he who had no sin became sin for us He conquered death for all of us. This is Adam and his moral system! The kingdom of God or life is here, we all (humanity) are new creations in Jesus! What happened to Jesus, happened to all humanity, when Jesus died for all, all died! In Adam all die, in Jesus all were made alive! It is done spiritually!
    This tree is the center of the first Adams life, as you said a morality of right and wrong! Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to convince us as living human beings (souls) in the here and now of sin, righteousness, and judgment, all humanity has been forgiven, made right, and Satan has been judged, he no longer needs to control or power over us in this knowledge of good and evil, it is not the reality of life!

    What does this mean? The light has come into the world (this is reality), and the darkness (all of us) cannot comprehend or overpower it! This is the struggle of Spirit and flesh! It is the illusion and delusion that continues to play out in our darkened unbelieving minds as we kick against Him who has conquered all! At the center of morality is judging and we are all painfully learning that this in fact is a hell for us! Sadly this morality is highlighted in many religions!
    The “Good News”, the light is fully here! In the radiance of his light, as we come to trust and believe, our deception of right and wrong is incrementally exposed, and we come to see dimly! John

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  7. John and Steve: compare with
    http://080808onnowto.blogspot.com/2010/07/its-like-itbut-it-isnt-tree-of-good.html

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