What will you get called up on the carpet for?
Okay, project yourself into the future when you are face to face with God on Judgment Day, where we have to give an account for every idle word, and thought, and action.
God is looking at you and your life is flashing before your eyes and he says either …
a) “What were you thinking, taking my LawWord so seriously! I did not mean that you should obey all my commandments as written. After all, they were for the Old Testament times (thank you Marcion for making that distinction), the Hebrews, not for saved New Testament Christians! Look how embarrassing you made my Scriptures to be in the eyes of decent folk with your talk of Biblical polygyny, reforming the calendar with Biblical holidays and Sabbaths and getting rid of perfectly functional weekday and month names. Not to mention wearing tassels, not trimming your beard, abstaining from unclean food, condemning sodomites and so forth. Don’t you know that only moral laws, as defined by a consensus of church leaders, are still valid? You are an intolerant person who has misrepresented Myself. Go to hell!”
or
b) “What were you thinking, taking my LawWord so lightly? I gave you My commandments as written and Christ to reconcile you to them so you would obey them and reflect My Character thereby. Where the signs and seals of the covenant changed with the coming of my Son into the world, I made this manifestly clear. What made you think you could pick and choose those commands that met with your approval and disregard the rest while adding some of your own? I made you quite aware of some areas of your life and culture that needed to be changed to bring them into line with My LawWord and you weighed the cost of acting on that knowledge with the cost imposed by My enemies and chose to ignore Me. You then refused to support those did take a stand. You even taught others to disregard many of my laws. You will be the least in my Kingdom.”
Which of these two do you suppose is more likely? Should you take all of God’s Laws very seriously and risk a) or should you blow off God’s more embarrassing Laws and risk b)?
I cannot imagine a) ever coming to pass, although this is apparently what a lot of my fellow Christians think will happen to me, while something like b) is quite likely what most church leaders will face.
What will you do as a teacher of your children? Will you teach the ongoing validity of all of God’s Law or will you take the easy way, the way of the prevailing culture you happen to be a part of?
This is what I want God to say to me:
c) “Well done, good and faithful servant. You fell short of my Law but you were not at war with it. You were imperfect in your understanding of many of My Laws but you loved them and did not teach others to disobey it. When I made you aware of areas of your life that needed to change to be brought into conformity to My Law you counted the cost and chose to fear Me above man. When you started to worry about how you would make it you remembered to pray to Me and trusted Me to provide for you. You laughed at the scorn fools heaped upon you and counted yourself blessed to be counted worthy to suffer reproach for my Name’s sake. You were never ashamed of me or My Law and neither am I ashamed of you. Take your place of honor in My kingdom.”