A faithful Church

A faithful church is to a degree always a critic of society. The church often confuses this with becoming a political force.

The difference is that the church is to be a critique of the way society is. A critic of what is wrong with society.

The bible deals with the problems of the heart so if offers solutions for what is wrong with the heart of humanity. Thus the church can potentially improve society by showing where society has fallen short.

The church however does not function nearly as well as a critic of politics. Often the church has fallen sort because it feels that legislation can change morality.

Possibly legislation can improve society at times, but he issue with humanity is not that there are not enough rules. In fact man lived sinlessly when he had only 1 rule – to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Actually mankind is at his best when he lives with only one thought. To follow Christ.

Augustine said that we should love God and do what we please. The reality of this is true if we do act out of love toward God we need only one rule or one thought to govern our entire existence.

All the time we see many rules get in the way of moral living. We cannot make an exception the to rules at any time. We cannot have wisdom to realize when the rules are not applicable.

In life it is important to follow God. When Satan tempted Jesus he attempted to place multiple rules in scripture against each other.

The error of course is that many rules function at time more like guideposts to direct faithful living rather than absolutes.

Some rules are more absolute than others, but most of the law in scripture has exceptions.

David when he was on the run ate of food of the temple which was forbidden and the punishment was death. He did what was right and we can see that the law was always a principle and never an absolute.

The principle was of the upmost importance but the reality is the will of God cannot be made into a absolute set of rules.

I used to be frustrated how vague the law of God was at times. But the reality is that life creates many unique situations.

A too tight set of rules produces extreme difficulties. This is why scripture has far more principles than rules.

Few people see this. Scripture is all rules, but the reality is most of the rules are more principles which are pointing directionally than absolutes.

Right Living not based on Knowledge

A large portion of the American educational mindset is that morality can be taught simply by making people aware of what is right or wrong. This stands in stark contrast to the bible.

Actually mankind lived perfectly before he had any knowledge of right or wrong (pre-fall). The knowledge of good and evil did not make man good.

The reality is that telling people what is right and wrong is of limited use. For young children there is often benefit, but most of the time the problem of the darkness within is not lack of education but a bad heart.

Sociologist do note that poverty increases crime and education reduces poverty. There is value in helping society through education as it makes people good citizens, but it does not make people good people.

Only through right relation to Jesus are people made good. It is not something which comes from within, since within is full of darkness. Instead we need a righteousness which comes only through faith.