Do's and Don'ts - Beckaroo Bulletin #1

No one likes to be told what not to do all the time. Many don't want to be told what not to do any time. So when a preacher says the Bible says not to do something our first response is to reject or rationalize the message. I find myself doing the same. But if you're a Christian and claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ, you need to pay attention to what Jesus and his followers said. And what Jesus believed, taught, and lived through in his life, death, and resurrection shows up in the Bible and nowhere else. So you must pay close attention to all that the Bible says. In fact what the Bible says about the Christian life is so serious that in some of the earliest Christian writings, those of Paul, he talks about working out our salvation with "fear and trembling." (Philippians 2:12) Sounds pretty serious to me. And Paul devotes long letters on the subject (1 Corinthians, Romans, etc.).

So what did Paul say about how we should live? You might be surprised by how much of what he says clashes with today's culture. We should be tolerant and open not only to other religions, but to other lifestyles, according to popular opinion.

Paul was a little more blunt. Yes, he said in essence, while in Rome do what the Romans do to lead others to Christ. But never live contrary to biblical teaching. Some of what he said could put him behind bars today. (Read Romans 1:24-27, for example). The lists of wrongdoing (dare we say sins) Paul points to in showing all to be guilty before God include a variety of sexual wrongs, both inside and outside of marriage, along with murder, lying, cheating, idol worship, greed, and such. See passages such as Galatians 5:19-21; 1 Timothy 1:9-10; and even 1 Peter 4:3.All this was nothing more, and perhaps less, than what Jesus himself taught.

You must obey God's commands better than the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law obey them. If you don't, I promise you that you will never get into the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20)

This is why Paul was so shaken when people professing to be Christ followers were practicing some of these very sins and on top of that showed no shame about it.

I have heard terrible things about some of you. In fact you are behaving worse than the Gentiles. A man is even sleeping with his own stepmother. You are proud, when you ought to feel bad enough to chase away anyone who acts like that. (1 Corinthians 5:1-2)

And that's only the beginning of the gross sins the Corinth, Greece professing followers of Christ were committing. They believed they were free to live as they pleased since they weren't under the law, but they were sadly mistaken.