Walking the Walk

So while at work the other day I was moving some books onto a cart to get them ready to be shelved. While doing this I spotted a book about writing your own Christian wedding vows. Now this book caught my attention because lately a lot of people I know have either gotten engaged or are about to be married and whenever something is that prevalent in my life I tend to notice things that have to do with it. So I picked this book up and began to flip through it. The first thing I noticed was that someone had gone and filled their the blank lines provided for answers to the many questions in the book. At first I was irritated that someone had written in the book but then I decided to take a closer look at the answers, because truthfully I’m a sucker for romance and I was hoping for an interesting first meeting story.

Well the first meeting story was interesting, just not in the way I’d hoped. The woman who had written in the book described her first meeting as being wonderful, that he was funny, kind, and made great love. That last part stopped me in my tracks, wasn't this book suppose to be the complete Christian vow book? What happened to no sex before marriage? I looked through other passages in the book and sure enough they were filled with sexual reasons for loving him. I closed the book disappointed but then a thought struck me. What other things in our lives do we ‘cheat on’ like this? Which teachings of Jesus do we choose not to follow even though it’s obvious we should? And what affect does this have on both God’s image of us and the world’s image of God’s children?

The bible tells us that we are to be salt and light to this world. Jesus says in Matthew 5:13-14 “¹³ You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. ¹⁴ You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.” So we are to be the flavoring of this world and a light to its people. Jesus goes on to say in Matthew 5:16, “¹⁶ Let your light so shine before me, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” We are suppose to follow His laws and do His works so that others may see the glory of God and come to know Him. In doing so they will in turn glorify the Lord. If we don’t do this then we are setting a bad example for others.

Christians are a walking example of our faith to others and people often only meet lukewarm Christians or people who profess to be believers but actually aren’t. These meetings turn people off of Jesus, because they see people who say they love God but then turn around and cuss out the lady in front of them in line at the supermarket. People who are not living for Jesus but say they are a follower of Him are making it harder for the word to go out. So what can we do to fix this? Well it’s simple, we need to start walking the walk as well as talking the talk. We need to get real in our walk with Jesus.

Christians need to let go of the idea that because God loves us and has forgiven our sins that its ok to sin. It is not and will never be ok to sin. God’s grace is much like a safety net there to catch us when we fall but it shouldn’t be abused. God forgives those with a repentive heart. He is not pleased with a, ‘Opps I’m really sorry God that I had sex with my neighbor last night’ then that person goes and does it again the next night, kind of heart. Luke 13:5 Jesus says, “I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish" You might initially think dang that’s harsh, but it’s not really, Romans 12:2 tells us, “ ²Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” If you love God and follow Him as a true believer then you’re naturally going to begin to change and have a repentive heart. If we are following God then we will turn away from the things of this world in pursuit of Godly things.

This thought process gets us into a lot of trouble, not only does it hurt our viewpoint with the world but it leads us away from Godly things and opens more doors in our life for us to walk away from God altogether. Someone who is constantly going out and sinning without repenting is wrong. Now I’m not saying that just because you repeat a sin your going to Hell. There is a difference between people who are struggling with a particular problem and people who are doing something just because they feel they can. We are not perfect and we will make mistakes in life but that doesn’t give us an excuse to kill someone.

The bible says that all sin is equal in God’s eyes. In Luke 13:1-5 Jesus says: 

“There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

He tells us right here that none of these sins are greater than the other, so why in the world would we think that a little white lie won’t hurt? Or that taking a candy bar from a grocery store is ok because it only costs a dollar. Or that it is ok to look at soft porn because it’s not as bad as hard porn. See how even my examples seemed to escalate? Allowing ourselves one ‘small’ sin will only lead to worse ones in the future. Where do we get these thought processes and how have we as Christians let ourselves be convinced that a little sin here and there won’t hurt anyone? We need to start making an effort to chase after God and not the things of this world. The more we seek after God the more things will begin to fall into place in our lives and the easier it will be to keep ourselves from repeating the same mistakes over and over.

So at work the other day I hadn't gotten a wonderful love story but I had gotten something better, a revelation from God on the importance of walking the walk and talking the talk. Begin to start living real for God by following His commandments. Remember that yes God loves us but no its not ok to sin. And finally know that we are all examples for Christ so what kind of example are you going to set for others to see? Try it and find out I dare you.

More Verses to Consider:

Mark 9:50

James 4:8

James 2:10-11