Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Excellence”
Our Bible verse for today: “Detest evil; cling to what is good.” Romans 12:9 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “We are to live by God’s standards.”
I once saw a bumper sticker that read, “It’s the Ten Commandments, not the ten suggestions!” The obvious meaning being that in the Bible God has given us clear and absolute instructions about how He wants us to live. Those standards are fixed for all time and we are not free to fudge on them.
All this month we’ve been considering the concept of “excellence”, but excellence as defined by God in the Bible, rather than how it is understood and defined by the culture around us. There’s a difference. God’s commandments are absolute and they apply to all people in all places at all times – regardless of the age of history you live in, and also regardless of what the current cultural trends might be in any given society at any given time. The people of God are to live by the word of God – all the time, always.
We are also not to have any accommodation or cooperation with evil. We are not to go along with things that are contrary to the Word of God, and we are not to turn a blind eye to them and act as if we’re not aware it’s going on. This requires us to be vigilant and strong.
We live in a society which has turned the concepts of good and evil upside down. Biblical values, which were once universally understood as being good and best, are now ridiculed and even legislated against. Practices which are clearly identified in the Bible as being evil are now called “good” by society, and are even being forced upon those of us who still consider them to be evil. God had something to say about that in Isaiah 5:20:
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”
Yes, woe to them – and woe to us if we go along with them. I encourage you to get a Bible Concordance and do a word study to see how many times in both the Old and New Testaments God clearly commands His people to detest evil, to avoid evil, to flee from evil, to oppose evil, and to have no accommodation, cooperation, or partnership with anything that has been identified by Him as being evil. You might be surprised to discover how often this command is repeated by God.
To live in a manner considered to be “excellent” by God, we must first of all be very familiar with the Bible, and then we must resolve to live by it. And we must do that regardless of the demands or pressures put upon us by whatever society we live in. The expectation of God for His people is always the same and was stated very well by Peter in Acts 5:29, “We must obey God rather than men.”
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 