God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in Love.And so I insist-and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. They've refused for so long to deal with God that they've lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. They can't think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion. But that's no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything--- connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life-a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you. Ephesians 4:14-24I can take this passage apart piece by piece. So often this society likes to use the phrase, "Christians are sooo judgmental!" And there are the Christians that have bought into this mindless mentality. Do you not know that the saints [reference for Christians in the bible, the word 'Christian' is not a biblical term] will judge the world? God has given us the command to judge, to warn, to exhort!
Ezekiel 3:17-21 says the following: 17 "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 18 When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 19 But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself. 20 "Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. Since you did not warn him, he will die for his sin. The righteous things he did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 21 But if you do warn the righteous man not to sin and he does not sin, he will surely live because he took warning, and you will have saved yourself."
Let's not confuse the two words used in Greek for "to judge". One meaning is to sentence a person to death or to hell, and the other to call a person's actions into question. We are cut off from all rights to the former. Judgment is not giving advice. ADVICE is the wordly point of view to solve an issue. WISDOM comes from the Lord, to keep our foot from slipping into evil. It may be harsh, but the outcome of any given action may have much greater consequences. I greatly discredit advice. I will greatly value the words of a Christian friend if I know they have a close knit relationship with the Lord and their words are coming for the wisdom HE has imparted to them. To "be judged" should bring a feeling of someone caring and being loved. A feeling that is someone helping us grow robustly in character in this life.Mindless is a great term for the American society these days! Sex and money seems to be the focus of everything, and sometimes they go hand in hand. People will indulge in anything to gratify themselves at the cost of others and relationships. "What if there is no chemistry?" What is chemistry anyway? Isn't it a connection, an emotional connection, a spiritual connection? I can physically connect myself to anyone, but the emotional connection determines the intensity of the physical connection. Let's mindlessly explain our strategies away. Let's base everything on our belief. Your belief is based on feeling and irrational rationalization. The facts, the studies show differently. There has been a sharp increase in divorces, STDs, teenage pregnancies since the 70s. People have this reality of romance, love making, swooning, and living happily ever after as in the movies. Lets face this lack of reality. Who has a life just like those in the movies? That's just it, the birth of movies around the turn of the century put these ideas in our heads. If you take away all of these concepts of romance the courtship seems boring and not worth it. Your premature gratification of the sensual/sexual nature leads to devastation 85% of the time. People will hate me for the Truth! Truth with a capital 'T' meaning it comes from the Lord. The Truth is the Lord and people hated him so much they killed him on the cross. All I can say is prove to me the other ways work better. I don't want proof based on your feeling, empty-headed, mindlessness. Give me the facts! I want the REALISTIC, hardcore, well thought out, uninfluenced by peers and society truth!Let us examine how many of our thoughts and beliefs are influenced, and what Christ has brought alive and recogniton in us.
