Is That a Proper Excuse?

Good morning! The week totters on toward its conclusion and work awaits us. Yesterday, the discussion turned to music. Like politics, music can be a very polarizing venue. Some support their freedom of expression, others their rights to avoid hearing objectionable 'noise'. There are those musicians who come up with an act that portrays worship of the devil, satanism, and evil acts. It might be said that they are in it for the money and do not really believe in these things. Okay, but is that a proper excuse? If a person says that his job is in banking, but in fact he makes a living robbing those banks. Would we say that he has a proper excuse? Probably not, certainly the long arm of the law would place him in a sort of protective custody for his criminal actions.

As we live in Christ, we don't get to separate making a living at our work from our behavior at church or when the pastor is watching. Jesus didn't die for our sins at home or down at the local bar while leaving alone that workplace because, as they say, everyone has to make a living. If the musician makes songs praising Satan, but then says it's all a goof and they don't really believe in it, are they not the hypocrite? We don't get to steal from the boss and then say how good we are in church. We can't excuse our betrayal of a co-worker to get ahead in the corporation as making a living for our family, and then take the family to church as though all is right with God. We don't want to become the legalistic judgmental Christian, but we don't want to be the hypocrite.

But, ya know, hold my life up to the microscope of God's law and you will find something hypocritical, something sinful, or a chaffed conscience. Your life probably has a few legal holes in it too. We are not perfect, and in fact Paul reminds us that all have sinned and fallen short of God's standard. We need Jesus, and in only in Christ can we be righteous. Only the cross makes us free of sin's penalty, and only in grace do we live. Praise God for the forgiveness of sin and the free gift of God in Christ.

Bucky