Be Thou Holy!

Be Thou Holy

Romans 2:

1 Wherefore thou art without excuse, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judges another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest dost practise the same things.
2 And we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against them that practise such things.
3 And reckonest thou this, O man, who judgest them that practise such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?
4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? (ASV)

Today, it is very difficult to tell the Christian from the world, it should not be so. Just as it states in verse one of Romans 2, we, the Christians, are without excuse. We go into the church building on Sunday, carrying our 10 pound Study Bibles that although they are ten years old, they appear as brand new. If we look inside they are even more impressive, not so much as a pencil mark or a smudge on the pages. And then we run around and instead of making ourselves available to answer questions that the prostitute and the drug dealer might have, we push them aside and condemn them to Hell for eternal suffering.

Am I suggesting that they are not bound for Hell? Certainly not! Am I then suggesting that we not judge good from evil? Again, I say no! We are given the Great Commission and it is not a great suggestion. When we were without hope, before we made Jesus our Master we were slaves to sin and there was nothing we could have ever done to defeat it, sin was our master and the 613 laws of God taught us to identify why God would have no part with us. For that reason, the Son of God descended from His Throne and lived with us for about 33 years and sacrificed His sinless body. God, Himself, paid the deb we owed and the moment we accepted the receipt for that payment we were purchased and we are now the Bond Slaves of God.

“But,” you say, “I never even dealt with a hooker, let alone be one.” Remember the Ten Commandments? Not one single man has ever lived his or her life on this earth and has managed to not break one of the ten. Add to that the other six hundred and three and then realize that when you stole that candy-bar at the age of six, without knowing it, you broke God's Law and since all of the Law is one unit, you are guilty of breaking all of it. There is no sliding scale that renders one offense to be more serious than the others, sin is just that... sin! Our mission is Matthew 28:18 – 20. We are not to beat folks up with our heavy study Bibles, no, we are to look on them and our judgment is to discern the sinner form the saved man and the religious fanatic and to befriend them and to help them find the foot of the cross, just as someone, at some point in our lives did for us.

So, I ask you, is a run-away, disobedient slave any less a sinner than the wino or the hooker? They are still slaves to the Law that condemns them and we, God's Bond Servants have the freedom to refuse to sin any more. They, without our help, have no choice, the Law has already condemned them and except that we come along side of them and be willing to assist them they will spend eternity in Hell. I do not know who said it but someone once suggested that everyone of us should preach every day of our lives and if required, even use words to do so.

In Romans, chapt. 6, we learn that we have not only the choice to live a righteous life but we go on to verse one of chapter 12 and we find that it is our reasonable service to do so. If we live a ood life in the midst of a world filled with sin, people not only notice that we are different, they want to know why we are able to be that way, then you can speak and not offend anyone because they asked you to explain. So my advise comes right from the Word of God. Stop carrying that big leather bound Bible around for looks and begin to study and to do s with prayer for God to teach you to be more like Him, He'll do that, I know from experience. There once lived a man on the north side of Houston known as Cowboy Bill and he turned from his path of sins and God made him into Bill Taylor, Bond Servant of the Most Holy God.

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