Before the regeneration of my heart by the Spirit of God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, I was a religious idiot and a legalistic hypocrite. Besides pride, the biggest struggles in my heart, though it might seem alright on the outside, deal with being judgmental and legalistic. It's a work in progress, but my heart has been open for the conviction of these issues in my heart. Luckily, God's grace has been helping me to see things more clearly concerning how much I need His grace! I should probably explain what I mean by all of this. Many Christians will profess to understand that they are saved by grace and not by works, but at the same time they are judging people for not living up to what they think the Bible says and they think that they need to live a perfect life. The first thing we must understand is that the Bible is the highest authority among Christians. If one says they are being led by the Spirit, we test it by the Scriptures. The Bible is absolute authority. Scripture contains timeless truths, but the methods of applying them are timely. In other words, we need to apply the absolute truth held within the Bible to the times we live in. What many people try to do is interpret the Bible to say what they want it to say, which causes legalism to arise. They begin to add rules and act like every Christian needs to live up to their rules. For example, the Bible does not say we cannot drink alcohol. We must obey the laws of the land and obey the drinking age, and getting drunk is a sin. Jesus was not a republican and he was not a democrat. Jesus never said that we cannot smoke tobacco products and He never said that, when married, we can only have sex for reproduction or on certain days of the week. These are rules that sinful men have placed on the consciences of many people. The beauty of the new covenant we have through Christ is the freedom we have through his perfect life and his sacrificial death. On the other end, Paul talks about women not braiding their hair and wearing gold or pearls or costly attire etc. In our culture, we obviously do not abide by these rules. There is a truth in these commands, but they must be applied to where we are today. Getting drunk is getting drunk no matter what era you live in. The point Paul is making concerning women, specifically women in the ministry, is that they need to be modest in their dress. So we take the truths in the Bible and apply them to us today. The point of this all is that I have been saved from the prideful and depressing life of religion and legalism. God wants no person to think more highly of himself than he ought to. We all are idiots. I suck, you suck, but Jesus is good! And He has saved us from the life of perfection by living it Himself! So put down your stupid ideas of what a Christian should look like and look to Jesus! Live by the absolute authority in the Bible and live by your conscience! Stop trying to force your conscience on other people! God has freed them where you are obviously not freed yet, so let them alone. I will live in the freedom of Jesus Christ and I will live my life for Him and Him alone. In finishing, Thrice is one of the best bands to ever have existed (I think). They have a song called the weight of glory and the lyrics are amazing, so I want to post them here:
A ring of Pharisees and one of them was me
We love the letter but not the Spirit
An infidelity, a woman on her knees
She begged for mercy, we couldn't hear it
The teacher looked from us, his finger in the dust
We felt the chill and it shook us to our bones
The he raised his head and this is what he said,
"The one who has not sin should throw a stone"
I waked away in silence
and threw myself upon the ground
These words they burned inside me
Take up your cross before your crown
Go and judge not, lest ye be judged with the girl and come down
Take up your cross before your crown
