Mores versus absolutes

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A teaching you probably won't hear in Sunday school, from Junior Partner Ministries.

From Dictionary.com, Mores: The accepted traditional customs and usages of a particular social group.

A major problem for us as Christians is deciding what is important. If we take as our baseline what God thinks is important, as important, we will not go far wrong. Since we frequently use our personal views instead, we have wasted a lot of time and opportunity.

No matter the culture in which we live, there are many things we take as abhorrent that other social groups would find normal. We assume God finds them abhorrent because they make us upset. Quite often we are wrong.

A first test; do you object to the actions of others that have no impact on you? If the people doing the actions are not Christian it does not matter what they do. Everything the unsaved does is sin, they have missed the target, they can not become pleasing to God by changing what they do. If you preach at a non Christian about their actions, having several wives, marrying at age 12, being homosexual, practicing all sorts of things you find unusual or frightening; you are wasting your breath. Worse you are wasting preaching that could be used in love to bring them to Christ. Your condemnation of supposed evil is redundant, evil is already condemned, and God may not care if they have 100 wives. These people may need help, but they do not need alienation.

Our job is to provide light, not to curse the darkness.

Here are some versus, from the Bible, that many would condemn in a tv show.

To describe men:

And it came to pass, when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, that he slew all the house of Baasha: he left him not one that pisseth against a wall, neither of his kinsfolks, nor of his friends. 1 Kings 16:10-12

Many call this a picture of Christ with his Church from Song of Solomon:

How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights!

This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes.

I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples;

And the roof of thy mouth like the best wine for my beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak.

I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me.

Would hearing that on the TV in front of your family make you uncomfortable?

This is in the Bible. God does not flinch at saying it, why do you complain at reading it?

We are products of our society. We need to become citizens of Heaven. We need to renew and conform our minds to be in synch with God. We are to be aliens in this land, ambassadors for our home in heaven.

If you are a Christian, let God help you escape sins he defines as sin. The Holy Spirit will convict you and guide you, if you will let him. God may only work on a few of your problems at a time, let him pick what, and in what order.

If a Christian brother is in sin, pray for him. Be sure it is sin you are praying against and not just something your barbarian tribe condemns. God may not ever get around to addressing what your Christian brother is doing that bothers you the most; God will solve their and your problems in his order. That is best for everyone.

In short:

Don't condemn sin in unbelievers, lead them to Christ and then let the Holy Spirit work.

Pray for your family in Christ and have patience with them, and pray they will have patience with you.

Pray for me.

Jesus is Lord!

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