After reading a story online about grace I found a theme that concerned me and I decided to pose a question.  As a Christian should we expect ANY standards at all?  I am not referring to a requirement for salvation, I am referring to our behavior in life.  Is there anything besides not judging people that we should put in the right column or the wrong column?  I say this because I am hearing a lot of the same messages in church that I am hearing on the secular television shows. I am hearing more and more lessons that preach to church members not judge people and talk about the grace of God and how our salvation is through grace.  I do not have a problem with that because the Bible says…

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: (Ephesians 2:8)”.

Where I have a problem is not making the distinction between judging people versus judging sin.  I rarely hear a message about righteous living coupled with grace when we fail.  Maybe I am reading this all wrong and if I am, please tell me so.  Yes salvation is through grace but there should be a change in ones life.  What happened to the repent part?  If we are repenting, then what are we repenting from?  It bothers me that the only lesson we are ever preached to about is not to judge.  There is nothing wrong with judging sin as long as you do not judge the person.  I am a sinner just as much as anyone else but I think I have an obligation to at least make an attempt at righteous living and help each other reach those standards with support when we fail and not through condemnation.

Please do not misunderstand.  I am not saying I think we should be screaming fire and brimstone but I do think that it is not right to think “everyone else is sinning so we will have no expectations”.  Sort of like the analogy of why wash dishes if they are just going to get dirty again?  I am not saying we should expect perfection but I do think that we need to tell the whole story and not just about the loving Jesus.  There is a price to be paid if we do not accept Jesus.  The standards given to us by God did not simply just go away because Jesus came and died for our sins.

The Bible says…

“What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” (Romans 6:15).

My issue is that we are finding churches that refuse to even mention that we have an expected standard to live by.  It is not being judgemental.  I never hear churches say that you have responsibilities.  You could make the arguement that it is the parents job but you could make that argument about anything.  If that were the case, then why do we need church other than the fellowship.  I think we do need church and we do need messages about grace and we do need messages about what God expects from us.  That last one is the one that I keep missing.  Maybe I have it all wrong and am just misunderstanding.  Am I the only one that feels that with salvation comes responsibility?  What are those responsibilities?  I never seem to hear churches tell us what they are.  If making the church grow is what is important then one may be tempted to say what they think a person wants to hear.  Unfortunately as a parent I cannot always tell my children what they want to hear because I have responsibilities that outweigh being their best friend.  Again, if you think I have it all wrong, please let me know.