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ITUS 2:14 succinctly summarizes one of the most fundamental and yet also most unpopular tenets of the Christian faith. "Christ gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Put simply, believers are supposed to be distinctly different from unbelievers (I Peter 2:9). We sing a different song. We behave differently. We live for a different purpose. We are looking for a different future. We walk differently. Our hearts are different. We chose a different environment. We have a different flock with which we fly. We have a different master. At least... those are supposed to be accurate descriptors of our existence. It is sad when professing believers are no different than the ungodly.
Now, I know that the great apostle Paul claimed under the influence of the Holy Ghost to use a chameleon-like strategy in evangelism (I Corinthians 9:22). However, his "all things to all men" philosophy did not include violating God's law. In culture, language, economics, style and other such irrelevancies, we can and should be as flexible as possible in order to reach out to others with the gospel, but to sin against God in the name of bringing people to God just makes no sense. It's worse than illogical, it's counterproductive. It is certainly true that we have liberty in Christ, but that freedom is from sin, not to sin. I fear that most of our modern expressions of spiritual freedom have a lot more to do with the appetites of our flesh than they do with our thorough understanding of biblical sanctification or with our burden for the lost. We must never forget that human misbehavior is still offensive to God.
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