Moral Exhaustion

"Compassion is the basis of morality."

                                                                                  ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

One of my favorite tales from the truth of antiquity comes from the Pharisaical Jews of the first century during the time of Christ.
There once were a group of men they called 'Bleeding Pharisees.'
The reason these men had that name was because they wanted to keep the law so fully that when they came into possible contact with a woman that was not their wife, they averted their eyes and moved on.
This covering of their eyes and misdirection caused them to repeatedly slam into walls, trip, fall and injure themselves.
Hence, in their desire to remain 'pure' as they believed, they actually became a joke and laughingstock.

That's not too far off from the modern Christian who seeks to puff themselves up in moral superiority to others today.
Sadly, we do have modern day Pharisees in every modern, American church.
And they are often made a laughingstock by others who rely on God's grace rather than themselves for moral purity.

In the old days, the Pharisees and teachers of the Law competed with one another in being 'righteous'. And this righteousness was tightly defined.

God's Law had been reduced to 613 rules; 248 of those were commandments, the other 365 were prohibitions.
While this may seem like ample amount of rules, these commands and prohibitions were then bolstered with 1,521 emendations - which means updated 'corrections.'

How a fallible man can correct absolute truth, I have yet to discover...but I digress.

Many Christians, especially of my generation and younger, rightly point out that we do not live by the Law and should not saddle other believers with man-made rules for the modern Church. We are under grace and we should remain compassionate, mercy-filled and grace-giving.

My generation is correct, but I would add one thought to the dispensing of grace - follow the commands of Jesus.

Most modern Christians do not realize that Jesus Himself EXPANDED God's Law further than any Pharisee ever imagined.
In fact, the Pharisees believed that Jesus' new 'morality' was so ridiculous that no human being could ever have faithfully kept it.
To a large extent, they were right.

But they didn't know what that truth meant.

Today in the United States, there are 20 million copies of pornographic magazines sold each month; probably more in electronic form than at any other time in history.
Jesus' command about such things was to pluck out an eye if it caused you to sin; yet, I have never met one person who lusted so strongly that they felt the need to pluck out their own eye and 'cast it into the fire.'

You see, when Jesus expanded the Law to make adultery equal lust, murder to equivocate to hate, and all sins relate to a thought in the human psyche, He wasn't doing it to judge us harsher.
Instead, Jesus was giving us God's truth knowing that His truth pointed, not to following a rule, but rather to the infinite, boundless and measureless gift we call God's grace.

In our modern Church, we tend to forget that we are still the Body of Christ.
To measure one another on a set of rules, surveys of the congregation, or even by-laws, to a large extent is a form of legalism.
Morality, God's morality, must come from His truth, His Word and guided by His Spirit.

I have often read of the Alabama Judge and others who have fought tooth and nail to keep the Ten Commandments on the wall of their respective domains.
I do not disagree.
But at the same time, I think you and I, as Christians, would be far better off following the Sermon on the Mount than we would be by simply posting the Decalogue on a wall.

I read once where Tolstoy tried to keep a perfect life by seeking to live Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, literally.
The problem with this is that Tolstoy had taken a set of principles laid down by Jesus in compassion and grace and made them a new Law of God.

And the result was predictable, he failed miserably.

Yet, all fail who try to find righteousness by a fixed path of rules.
Tolstoy died a miserable man who was repeatedly suicidal; like a vagrant in a rural railroad station. He had given up his wealth, property and his family.
In his writings, he had deeply penetrating insight concerning God and His ideal; but Tolstoy himself could never achieve that ideal - as none of us can aside from receiving the grace of God from the Lord's hand.

As Christians, many times we will hear others point to believers who have failed or faltered as evidence that grace doesn't exist and God's ideal cannot be achieved.
Friend, we should never judge God's Holy truths by our inability to meet and keep most of them.
That would be like judging a preacher by one sermon - good or bad, it cannot encompass all of who he is.

Nor does our failure encompass who God is; but His grace in restoring our lives speaks volumes.

Many Christians fight an uphill battle throughout their entire lives trying to become a 'perfect' Christian. This is hopelessly unattainable.
It always ends the same way - in a failed life full of moral exhaustion.
Unless grace is imputed into our lives, we will face the cruel deception of man's moral code.

Yet, Jesus did give us absolute commands; this is the same Jesus who tenderly offered you and I absolute grace.
Grace is inflexible, absolute, full, exclusive and all-encompassing.
In short, grace is an extension of God Himself.

And with God and His grace, we don't have to achieve anything; He has already done it for us.

Until next time, win one for the good guys.