1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5 Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. 6 And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
7 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
"...to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake", "...called to be His holy people"
These lines caught me off guard. It's almost as if Paul is telling us that we have been saved to obey - how archaic is that! We don't hear much of that today. We have reacted so far the other way for fear we are not preaching or sharing a gospel of grace, that we shy away from telling people, "OK, now that you are saved, you need to obey." If people are living together they need to move out and get married. If people are cursing, they need to stop. If people aren't attending church, they need to be encouraged, no - urged, no - confronted to be obedient to not forsake the assembling of themselves. If people aren't tithing, they need to be spoken to. If people are gossiping, they need to stop. And the list goes on. We instead think of the passages like "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone", forgetting that Jesus said, "Go and sin no more", in the same passage.
The key is found in the reason for obedience. It is seen in verses 6 and 7. We are called to be God's people. We are representing Him. If we do things that don't accurately represent Him, we are giving the world a lesser view of Him. We are in effect violating the commandment, "Don't take the name of the Lord in vain". By saying we are His and then to misrepresent Him, we are making Him common. We are in effect blaspheming Him with our lives. He is Holy. He is sinless, and as a child of His we must honor Him by being like Him. Not only that, but if we truly love Him, we will want to make Him happy. Not only that but if we realize it is that sinful behavior that caused His son to die on the cross, we are disagreeing with God's assessment of the wickedness of this behavior and making light of God's ultimate sacrifice.
So the question is, what do we do with the verse "Before you take the speck out of someone else's eye, take the plank out of your own"? First of all, this is a blog. I am writing to you who I don't know and praying God would convict you of sin in your life that needs to be forsaken. I don't know you so I'm letting you judge your plankeye while I look at my own. Secondly, I feel the point of that verse is as we go to others about their lives, we go humbly as fellow failures and say, "Help me flee from this sin and let me help you. Let's support each other and be accountable to each other as we strive to follow Christ in a manner worthy of Him."
So quit claiming God's grace as an excuse for bad behavior, you have already used your quota when He saved you. Start living an obedient life because that is what He called you to.
The key is found in the reason for obedience. It is seen in verses 6 and 7. We are called to be God's people. We are representing Him. If we do things that don't accurately represent Him, we are giving the world a lesser view of Him. We are in effect violating the commandment, "Don't take the name of the Lord in vain". By saying we are His and then to misrepresent Him, we are making Him common. We are in effect blaspheming Him with our lives. He is Holy. He is sinless, and as a child of His we must honor Him by being like Him. Not only that, but if we truly love Him, we will want to make Him happy. Not only that but if we realize it is that sinful behavior that caused His son to die on the cross, we are disagreeing with God's assessment of the wickedness of this behavior and making light of God's ultimate sacrifice.
So the question is, what do we do with the verse "Before you take the speck out of someone else's eye, take the plank out of your own"? First of all, this is a blog. I am writing to you who I don't know and praying God would convict you of sin in your life that needs to be forsaken. I don't know you so I'm letting you judge your plankeye while I look at my own. Secondly, I feel the point of that verse is as we go to others about their lives, we go humbly as fellow failures and say, "Help me flee from this sin and let me help you. Let's support each other and be accountable to each other as we strive to follow Christ in a manner worthy of Him."
So quit claiming God's grace as an excuse for bad behavior, you have already used your quota when He saved you. Start living an obedient life because that is what He called you to.
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