<\/p>\n
The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God.<\/p>\n
\u2013Romans 14:22<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This week, we\u2019ve been looking at the problem of legalism in the Colossian church. Now let me point out two important principles from this passage for us today.<\/p>\n
First of all, we ought to deal with other Christians on the basis of grace, not the law. Romans 14:13 says, \u201cLet us not judge one another anymore.\u201d In those areas the Bible is silent about, we are to quit judging other people. If you feel it\u2019s wrong for you to drink alcohol or gamble, then I\u2019m happy God has led you to that conviction. But don\u2019t make your conviction somebody else\u2019s command. We ought to deal with other people on the basis of grace.<\/p>\n
Second, we need to differentiate between legalism and obedience. Somebody might read this passage and think,\u00a0That means I\u2019m free to do whatever I want to do because I\u2019m under grace, not the law<\/em>. No, we are to obey God\u2019s commands. Even though the only Old Testament laws that apply to us today are the ones repeated in the New Testament, there are some rules we follow\u2013not to earn our salvation but to merit God\u2019s favor in our lives. God says if we follow His principles about morality, attitudes, and family, we\u2019ll have better lives than if we disobey those principles.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re also to obey those whom God has placed in authority over us. For example, if you\u2019re a teenager, don\u2019t tell your parents, \u201cPastor Jeffress says it\u2019s okay for me to have a can of beer.\u201d Ephesians 6:1 says, \u201cChildren, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.\u201d If your parents say you can\u2019t have alcohol, that means no alcohol.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re to obey governing authorities as well. Romans 13:1\u20132 says, \u201cEvery person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. . . . Those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God.\u201d In the United States, the law says you\u2019re not to drink under the age of twenty-one. We are to submit to that authority. It is the same way with our spiritual leaders and our employers. Obeying God means obeying those who are in authority over us.<\/p>\n
Remember this: grace is not the freedom to do what we want to do. Grace is the freedom to obey God out of love rather than fear. So many Christians are still living as slaves to sin and slaves to the law. If you\u2019re a Christian, you are free from the burden of trying to earn God\u2019s approval. Instead, you are free to serve God out of genuine appreciation for all He has done for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. \u2013Romans 14:22 This week, we\u2019ve been looking at the problem of legalism in the Colossian church. Now let me point out two important principles from this passage for us today. First of all, we ought to deal with other Christians on the … Continue reading “Pathway to Victory – Devotion”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192593"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":192621,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192593\/revisions\/192621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}