This morning while reading the Word, I came across the story of Paul rebuking Peter. Never really thought that much about this story really. I have read it dozens of times and this morning it hit me. When Paul found out that Peter was acting one way around his Jewish friends and acting another way around his Gentile friends, he wasn't happy. Peter wanted to please his religious and pious friends that still adhered to the law and he also wanted to minister the gospel to the gentiles and be friends with them but, also telling them that they had to go by the law. Well that is a little hard to do since you would have to be super phony to be able to do such a thing which would be counter productive to say the least. Paul said this to Peter in Galatians 2:14: " You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? "We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. "But, if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners doesn't that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not!! If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker. "For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"
Wow! Those were some pretty strong words that Paul said to Peter but, seriously don't some of us do the same thing Peter was doing? Don't we act all religious around religious folk, you know wanting to look just like them, wear what they wear, eat what they eat so as not to offend them. As if what we wear or eat or if we put on makeup or don't put on makeup is going to justify us before God. Nothing that we could ever do would justify us before God. Yes God wants us to be modest and to represent Him wherever we go but to put ourselves under bondage and make others to do the same has absolutely nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ. He came that we might have life and more abundantly not to be under a yoke of bondage. Paul had come out of the most religious sect of the Jews, called the Sanhedrin, he had absolutely no desire to be like them any more in any way. He had been made new in Christ and he didn't want to mix the law with grace because they don't mix well. The law condemns and kills, grace makes a way unto salvation through Jesus Christ.
The Bible says very little about what a Christian should wear, or eat or any of that stuff but, we have whole sects and religions that claim they are based on the word of God but, I can't find it in scripture. We need to be very careful what we are practicing and why. We need to be very careful what we are trying to teach others about the word when we don't even know why we do what we do. I heard a story one time about a lady that was about to bake a ham for Christmas dinner. She gets out her ham and her pan and all of the ingredients to put on the ham, her pineapple and brown sugar and butter and spices and she then begins to prepare the ham for cooking. Her little daughter was in the kitchen watching her. She then cut the end of the ham off and the little girl said why did you do that mother? She said oh that is the way my mother always did it, but why? her daughter asked? she said well honey I really don't know that is just the way she always did it. Well now the little girl is intrigued so she walks down the street to the grandmother's house and she walks in and finds her grandmother also in the kitchen and she says grandma, mother is making a ham and she cut the end off cause she said that is what you always used to do, she don't know why you did it though, would you tell me why you did that? The grandmother laughed and said honey, I did that because my pan that I had at the time was too short for the ham.
You see, we do things without any real foundation for doing them. We dress like our moms or grandmothers did or we don't do this or that because of what our friends or acquaintances do or don't do. I tell you right now that has brought more bondage on people in the church than anything that I can see. When something is not in the Bible and we are just doing stuff and telling others that they better do it to or they won't be justified or "holy" we better watch out. Because we need to make sure that what we are saying is in the word and not just the traditions of men. For instance I know a sect of people that think that it is a terrible sin to wear short sleeves, they preach from the pulpit on the subject. My dad would call that a clothesline preacher, anyways I digress. They preach about something that is absolutely not in the Bible. They also preach that it is a sin to wear purple or red, now I don't know where they get this from but, that is just nonsense. People think something in their mind and then turn it into a rule or regulation and form a sect or religion. Lord knows we have enough religion, I say let's get a relationship with Jesus Christ and He will bring us into all truth. The Holy Spirit of God is our teacher and He will lead, guide and direct us into how we should dress and act and be for that matter.
We can't listen to what others say about short sleeve, long sleeve, no sleeve, pants vs. dress or skirt, makeup vs no makeup. If it is not in the word, then it should be left alone. We need to be sharing the gospel that gets folks saved not spending so much time and emphasis on the apparel. According to the word of God when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Don't let the traditions of men entangle you, search out what the word of God says about any subject. Study to show yourself approved the word says.
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