Keep Your Integrity! - What Is the Right View?

 Does this show a proper appreciation for God's mercy?  Well, think about mercy for a moment.  Jesus said: "God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)  The apostle John explained how that mercy operates   when he said:  "I am writing you these things  that you may not commit a sin. And yet, if anyone does commit a sin, we have the helper with the Father, Jesus Christ, a righteous one." (1 John 2:1)  Hence, if because of imperfection we fall into sin, we can come to God in prayer and beg for forgiveness on the basis of Jesus' sacrifice.  

Does this mean, though, that it does not matter whether we sin or not, as long as we ask for forgiveness afterward?  Hardly. Remember the first words of that quotation:  "I am writing you these things that you may not commit a sin."  John's further words in that verse show Jehovah's loving  arrangement for dealing with our imperfection.  Nevertheless, we have to try as hard as we can to avoid sinning.  Otherwise wee  a lamentable disrespect for God's love, rather like the ones referred to by Jude who used the undeserved kindness of God as an excuse for loose conduct. - JUDE 4.  

Viewing God's mercy as a kind of safety net that will always catch us not what we do trivializes God's mercy and makes it seem that sin is not all that bad. This is far from the truth. The apostle Paul told Titus:  "The undeserved kindness of God which bring salvation to all sorts of men has been manifested, instructing  us to repudiate ungodliness and wordly desires and to live with soundness of mind and righteousness and godly devotion amid this present syste of things." -  TITUS 2:11, 12. 

Paul showed his  appreciation for God's mercy in the way he struggled against his own imperfection. He said:  "I pummel by body and lead it as a slave, that, after I have preached to others, I myself take it for granted that he was bound to sin from time to time.  Should we?  

Next time: Keep Your Integrity! - Jesus' Viewpoint

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