Does our Behavior Matter?

[Russell Roberts]

Yes, our behavior matters very much. After all, we will be judged according to our works. But our behavior should be focussed on loving God and loving our neighbor rather than drawing arbitrary lines of holiness based on length of hair, attire, or whether someone attends our meetings every sunday.

Notice that Paul very seldom simply issued a rule about behavior. He taught the Corinthians, for example, to act in continuity with the story of Israel. He referred to the patriarchs as 'our forefathers' who had been baptized in the wildernes ( a strange statement in light of the fact that he was speaking to a predominantly Gentile church with no ethnic ties to Abraham or the Patriarchs).

There is both continuity and discontinuity between Israel before Christ and the Israel that was reborn through the death and resurrection of Jesus (the Church). He was teaching them to think through these issues themselves - to conclude ethical decisions based on examples provided in the Old Testament.

But Paul understood that Christians are not subject to Torah. It was a temporary measure given to only one ethnic group. We simply can't arbitrarily pick and choose scriptures from the Old Testament to enforce as our personal standard of holiness. We are NOT ethnic Israel. We were never under the law as ethnic Israel was.

When Paul spoke of those who walked after the spirit as fulfilling the law, he didn't mean that Christians somehow live up to the ethical standard set forth in the Old Testament. What he meant was that Christians are a FULFILLMENT of the law. The law declared that 'the just' shall live by faith (Hab. 2:4). Therefore, when someone comes to faith in Jesus, God declares them to be 'justified' (part of his family). It is in THIS sense that we 'fulfill' the law.

If God has declared one who has faith to be part of his family, who are we to then condemn them?