12-13The next morning more than forty Jewish men got together and vowed that they would not eat or drink anything until they had killed Paul. 14Then some of them went to the chief priests and the nation's leaders and said, "We have promised God that we would not eat a thing until we have killed Paul. 15You and everyone in the council must go to the commander and pretend that you want to find out more about the charges against Paul. Ask for him to be brought before your court. Meanwhile, we will be waiting to kill him before he gets there."
16When Paul's nephew heard about the plot, he went to the fortress and told Paul about it. 17So Paul said to one of the army officers, "Take this young man to the commander. He has something to tell him."
18The officer took him to the commander and said, "The prisoner named Paul asked me to bring this young man to you, because he has something to tell you.
19The commander took the young man aside and asked him in private, "What do you want to tell me?"
20He answered, "Some men are planning to ask you to bring Paul down to the Jewish council tomorrow. They will claim that they want to find out more about him. 21But please don't do what they say. More than forty men are going to attack Paul. They have made a vow not to eat or drink anything until they have killed him. Even now they are waiting to hear what you decide."
22The commander sent the young man away after saying to him, "Don't let anyone know that you told me this."
I work with a young person who unintentionally mishandled thousands of dollars of government funds. this person will be disciplined. I recall telling somebody "I'm glad it was a large amount because it forces us to do something about it. If it were a couple of hundred we probably would have let it slide...and learned nothing in the process".
Did you read that statement in today's scripture? "We have promised God that we would not eat a thing until we have killed Paul". Now that's no small indiscretion. That will get your attention. How on earth can can anybody muster that kind of hatred in service and obeisance to God? I know...we see it regularly in our Global War on Terrorism. I see it. I believe it...I just can't comprehend it.
"God told me to do it..." Unbelievable!
So now...since we should all be on the same page here...let's talk about degrees.
How about lying? In the name of God, might we lie? Well, of course not. One of the Ten Commandments specifically prohibits it. Although, it's done. I'm currently aware of a Christian somebody who seems to lie with impunity and cover it with devotion and piety...as long as it serves his view of God's will.
How about gossiping? In the name of God might we gossip? Well, we cover it with "need to know" and claim the Body of Christ needs to be aware of what's going on. It happens all the time. But, we probably have to concede it's not such a good thing.
How about drinking to serve Jesus?
How about speeding?
How about...?
You get my point...How low do we have to go on the scale before we get comfortable with questionable behavior?
It's easy to justify bad behavior by saying we're doing it for God. Let me suggest if this is the best rationale we can come up with for behavior we would otherwise not condone...God is not going to accept our offering. We should always examine our motives for everything we do. A good rule of thumb is this: God is holy. God does not sanction bad behavior to meet his ends...mostly because he's holy, but also because he doesn't need to. He doesn't deal in degrees of sin. Either we're "all in" or we are "all out".
So the real question is not "would this rationale fly?" The real question is "What is God's standard of holiness in this situation?"
Live boldly out there today...
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