Grace is a victim of abuse

thesoapboxtruth.blogspot.com

I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord form now on."

"Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them."
Revelation 14:13, New International Version.

When reading the Scriptures this morning,  this verse really stuck out to me.  When verses seriously gain my attention, I know that God is speaking to my heart about something.  When I wrote this verse in my journal, I then wrote "blog" next to it so I would know that the remainder of my thoughts about this verse would be found online and not in my actual journal.  In fact, blogging is merely an extension of my journaling that I am comfortable sharing with others.

The above verse indicates that our deeds will have eternal fruit.  I think this concept has lost its significance to many Christians, including me, throughout the Church.  Streamlining throughout American Christianity is the notion that we can act now and ask questions later, that we can ask for forgiveness rather than ask for permission from God.  Because we know that God's mercy and love endures forever, we often feel a false sense of comfort that we feel grants us permission to walk and often cross the line of selfish and sinful behaviors.  Though we are commanded by the Scriptures not to abuse God's grace (Romans 6:1, 15), we do this more often than not.

I am guilty of abusing God's grace.  I know that everything I do I ought to do in the strength of the Lord and in obedience to His commands.  I know that I should be more careful to love others and be less selfish.  I also know that I should not have a flippant attitude towards sin.  I know that sometimes I'll buy something that I know I shouldn't or I'll let a swear word slip on purpose because I know that God's mercy is available to me.  And though I've written that the Scriptures say not to do this, I do it.  Because I lose my eternal perspective of my earthly conduct, I abuse God's grace knowingly.  And abusing God's grace is evil and sinful and it injures my relationship with God and therefore my relationships with others.

How does this injure my relationship with others?  If we claim to be believers and followers of Jesus, we believe that we ought to revere God with the utmost respect and love.  If we abuse God and His mercy, how much more will we abuse the grace of those we love?  If I believe that I can disobey the commands of the Almighty God of the universe because I have reached a level of comfort that permits me to take Christ for granted, how much more will I take others for granted?  Then again, I suppose the opposite could occur.  Unlike Christ, we recognize that the grace and the mercy of others only allows us so much slack, so perhaps we will give the minimum requirement to others to prevent a relational crisis.  Knowing that God's grace is limitless, it becomes easier to neglect Him.  If we approach God and others in this way, we care more about the thoughts of others than we do God.

How would we live if we believed that God's mercy indeed did have an end?  Would we regard Him with more reverence and obedience?  How would we regard others?  Would we be more careful to express love and devotion to our God and to our spouses, significant others, friends, and family?

For instance, I take my mother's mercy and love for granted just like I take my God's.  I know that my mother will always love me, even as a grown man.  She will always want what is best for me.  If I fail to help her with a task or neglect doing her a favor she has asked me to do, it might cause some temporary pain or emotional discomfort, but this will quickly resolve itself because my mother loves me.  This attitude is evil, wrong and downright offensive.  Yet it pervades the American Christian church, even in the most orthodox of settings.  Who do you take for granted?  Whose grace and love do you abuse?  Who do you assume will always be there for you?

I write this to encourage believers to forsake mediocrity in relationships with God and others.  I write this to remind others that our actions are of value and significance in heaven as they are here on earth.  The notion that is better to ask for forgiveness later than to ask for permission does not work with God.  We cannot live our lives carelessly, assuming that we can do what we like when we like without considering Biblical standards of conduct and the truth that these deeds will follow us into eternity.  While sin will not be counted against followers of the Lamb, the fruit of our works will endure.

Regard each person as more important than you and regard God as He ought to be regarded: as the King of existence itself, as the Lord of our lives and the Master of all.  If we abuse the grace of God we will surely abuse the grace of others as well.  The more we study the scriptures and the more we learn about God, we see that right relationship with God allows us to live in right relationship with others.  And if we continue to abuse God's grace, taking advantage of it and using it for our own pleasure, we will see its effect on our earthly peace, our eternal rewards, and our personal relationships.  True story.