A Way That Seems Right

The apostle John made the statement that he had “no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” (3 John 4, NKJV) Yet, today, some approximately two thousand years later, it is questioned whether one can know the truth or whether such a thing even exists. I find that quite distressing, but find myself unable to do much about it.

It was reported to me that one I know quite well made the comment as it relates to Christian doctrine that “everyone sees it differently.” The implication, of course, is that it makes little to no difference what one believes and practices in the Christian religion as long as it fits somewhere in the broad spectrum of what men call Christendom. The idea is that one can be a member of about any Christian denomination with their peculiarities and all will be well with one’s soul. It implies that truth cannot be known with any certainty and even questions whether absolute truth even exists in religion.

It is a live-and-let-live philosophy. My Christian faith and practice are as good as yours, and yours as good as mine, even though we are in deep disagreement about many things. It just makes no difference.

Certainly, there is nothing rational in this train of thought, but that is the world we live in. How do people think today? George Barna recently came out with a new report entitled: 2025 American Worldview Inventory – Report #6 Americans Possess Contradictory and Unbiblical Views about Moral Truth. I quote from it:

“Most adults in the United States do not believe that there are any moral absolutes, and they live accordingly. … Even substantial majorities of some of the largest Christian church groups reject absolute morality, including 69% of Catholics and 61% of those who attend a mainline Protestant church.

Beyond that, half of the adults considered to be spiritually conservative and a cornerstone of evangelical Christianity—a niche known as “theologically-identified born-again Christians— admit to rejecting absolute moral truth.

The research has shown that these days, Americans most often make their moral choices based on their emotional reaction to a situation. In fact, the only consideration that a majority of adults trust to discern moral truth is their feelings, which is relied upon by three out of four adults (74%).”

You can read the report for yourself, as long as it is up, online at: https://www.arizonachristian.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AWVI-2025-6-Contradictions-in-Beliefs-about-Moral-Truth_FINAL.pdf

Further down in the report he goes on to say: “One of the guiding moral ideals is that being open-minded and accepting of alternative philosophies of life is a sign of maturity—even if those points of view conflict with one’s personal perspectives. A large majority (67%) of adults embrace this supposed “sophisticated” thinking. ...

Pluralism is alive and well in America today: the dominant worldview of nine out of 10 adults is Syncretism, which is the blending of beliefs and behaviors conceived or favored by a variety of competing worldviews.

The popularity of that approach to life provides an ideal philosophical environment for people to suppose that competing, even conflicting, truth views can all be right or should at least be appreciated as valid.”

If, in fact, we live in such a society it is easy to see that the narrow gate Jesus spoke of is non-existent in the mind of the average American, even of many Christian conservatives. Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.” (Matt. 7:13 NKJV) In American religious thought today, Jesus had it just backwards. In our minds the gate that leads to life is quite broad indeed.

Today, even among many, perhaps most Christians, who can say (?), one sees this kind of thinking. Let someone die who has not lived a Christian life but has been a nice guy, man or woman, friendly and kind, but never lived as a Christian, and it is suddenly said upon their death that they are “in a better place now” or they have received “their angel wings.” We rail against those who would judge others, and we should oppose such judging, but on the other hand, who put you or me in charge of judging people into heaven? Who made us judge?

But that is a reflection of how people think today. People have discarded the clear teachings of the Bible and developed their own religion, which is basically whatever seems right to me. What does the Bible say about such a course? “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” (Prov. 14:12 NKJV)

Paul, in Rom. 10:2, spoke of those in his day who “have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.” (NKJV) I make two points about those Jews of whom he spoke. (1) He was not complimenting them. He goes on to say they were “seeking to establish their own righteousness” (ver. 3).  That is exactly what is happening today with the way we are thinking about Christianity and life.

(2) The second point is that Paul spoke of knowledge. He was saying there is such a thing as truth. It is not my truth nor your truth, but the truth applicable to both of us. It is objective, not subjective, and is independent of our feelings.

Today, believing the way so many do, the Bible is forced to take a back seat, but it will not stay there. You cannot fight against God and win; only a fool tries to do so.

It is felt that Christianity is too narrow if you take the word of God to mean what it says, so we play around with it and tell ourselves the text does not mean what it seems to be saying in so many different places. We spend our time not in teaching what the text says but in teaching why the text does not mean what it says. No, not all of us, but so many do.

Of course, there is such a thing as intolerance which we must fight against. The problem is that we have come to tolerate the evil and condemn the good. “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isa. 5:20 NKJV)

This raises the question, of course, of how do we know the good from the evil? Are we to determine it for ourselves? Is it whatever seems right to me? Is there no objective standard? That is where we are today, each person doing what is right in his/her own eyes, living by feelings, and intolerant of anyone judging their personal decisions. We have abandoned our standard, the Bible, and each is doing what is right in their own eyes.

Two examples are our society’s open embrace of homosexual unions and of living together outside marriage. We all know the Bible condemns both, but we have embraced both as a society, for we make the rules now, not God. We will reject him if need be, and so we have.

Where is all this new worldview going to land us? God only knows. It will not be a good place, but only time will tell. We do know, however, “sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov. 14:34 NKJV) and God will eventually judge us all.

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When Did Obedience Become Legalism

We seem to be living in a time in the present Christian era where people seem to feel that all that matters in Christianity is love and God’s grace, when obedience is seen as legalism, and where it is felt that people do not have to obey biblical commands for salvation except, of course, for the command to believe in Jesus as the Savior.

Grace is made cheap. Live as you like, call yourself a Christian, and God’s grace will cover you. It is said it is what is in the heart, generally defined as the emotions, that counts. Feelings and emotions are defined as love for God. God’s grace will cover a life of sin just so a person believes in God in some abstract sense. I might add if you doubt this just attend a few funerals and see if you can learn of any deceased who are not already in heaven based on the conversations you hear and the preaching that is done there.

People talk about love for God all the time. It is in their heart (their emotions). Yet, quote a passage to them like 1 John 5:2-3, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome” (NKJV) and you immediately have problems for that is not what they want to hear. It is not how they want love defined. Love is emotion, not obedience, in their way of looking at things.

In 1 Cor. 13 we have Paul discussing love in verses 4-8. In verse 6 of that chapter he says love “does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth.” (NKJV) Iniquity is the opposite of obedience. One can no more join love with iniquity than he can a lamb with a lion. But we have come to believe God’s grace covers everything and obedience is not necessary. We now accept iniquity because we are no longer willing to accept the Bible as the standard of authority for what is holy and right versus what is wrong.

To condemn sin as did John the Baptist, Paul, and Jesus is today seen to be unloving, intolerant, and judgmental, and thus unchristian in the minds of many. Yet, in the New Testament, Paul by the Holy Spirit, commanded Timothy to reprove and rebuke (2 Tim. 4:2 NAS) and not go along with or hold his silence in the presence of men sinning. Titus was told not only to rebuke but to do so sharply (Titus 2:13, see also Titus 2:15). The Ephesians were told, thus meaning it is applicable to us as well, to “take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” (Eph. 5:11 ESV) But today that is seen as sticking your nose in where it does not belong and we are no longer to call anything short of murder, rape, or robbery and such like as sin.

Yes, obedience to Bible standards of conduct (commands) is now seen as legalism. Sin is renamed and given polite names or, as is often the case, simply dropped off the radar altogether. Fornication is an example of a sin that has dropped off the radar screen and out of sight. Hardly anyone takes it to be a sin today. It is commonly expected that just about every young person is going to engage in it and certainly every unmarried adult. It is just taken for granted as being a normal part of society and not a serious sin at all. What happened to the Bible?

Homosexuality has disappeared from the American consciousness as sinful. The majority approve of it and applaud it and gay marriage. To those who object we speak of their intolerance and hate. We call it a civil right. However, the Bible says, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil.” (Isa 5:20 NJKV) And surely, those who read this know the New Testament condemns homosexuality. If not, read 1 Cor. 6:9-10.

Adulterous marriages are celebrated as God-approved despite the Bible’s teaching on adultery. This listing of sins could go on almost endlessly, sins that in our culture are no longer considered sinful despite what the Bible teaches. Sin is no longer considered a serious thing in our culture.

The religiously liberal Christians (if there is such a thing) say God loves all men (true) so we say we can rejoice in Christian fellowship with those actively practicing these and other sins--no repentance required. Of course, in doing so we destroy the Bible as written but the national desire today is to abandon the Bible altogether as a standard and make our own Bible even if unwritten.

The way we do that is by making the Bible we have mean anything we want it to mean and abandon all rational exegesis. We simply say it does not mean what it seems to say. It means what we say it means, not what it says. In that, we are much like the Catholics who say Jesus was the only child Mary ever had. Of course, all our conclusions are based on love, love the way we, not God, define it. We are perverting the faith and making up our own religion as did the Jews of Jesus’ day. They were “seeking to establish their own righteousness” (Rom. 10:3 NKJV) and we seem to be doing the same thing.

Jesus said, “But why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46 NKJV) Does anyone have an answer? Love means obedience and obedience, despite the cry to the contrary, is not legalism.

Did you ever give it thought that if obedience is legalism Jesus was the biggest legalist of all time? He kept every commandment and never sinned once. He said, “I always do those things that please him.” (John 8:29 NKJV) He was obedient to death (Phil. 2:8). He was the only one who ever kept the law of God perfectly, obedient in every detail.

Jesus never condemned the Pharisees for keeping the law, not once. He condemned them for hypocrisy, for not keeping the law, for making commandments and adding them to God’s word and making them of equal force with God’s word binding them on men. We often today say they were legalists and I do not object to that designation of them but I add this for clarification--their legalism was not for God’s law but for the law they had made and added to his law.

Jesus said, “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5:19 NKJV)

Yes, in the passage just quoted Jesus was speaking to an audience who were living under the Law of Moses but where, oh where, have people come up with this modern-day idea that Jesus just does not care about obedience anymore? Put another way, or phrased another way, what has happened to sin? When did it go out of existence? But that is where we are today and it is an idea that is fairly prevalent among a significant number of people who consider themselves to be Christians.

I give people credit in a place where perhaps some others would not. Some would say we have come to this place because people today are just ignorant of God’s word. Well, there is truth in that for sure but why is it so? Is there a shortage of Bibles? No, that is not it. There is a lack of will to read them--that is for sure. And there is a lack of a will to believe them and obey them. Peter said there was such a thing as people who are “willingly…ignorant.” (2 Peter 3:5 KJV) If we do not read and study how can we keep from falling into the category of those who are willingly ignorant?

But, as I said, I am more inclined to give people credit in the knowledge department than some others believing for the most part, people do know right from wrong. I believe the cry “legalism” against the teaching of obedience is in reality a smoke screen to cover up and make an excuse for a life lived for self, a worldly life. It is my life and I want to live it the way I want to. The claim of being saved solely by love and God’s grace provides the cover one needs for such a life to legitimize it before the public.

We all tend to try and hide the wrong we know we are doing and one of the best ways (?) of doing that is to legitimize it--get everyone else to think what we are doing is not wrong. Hey, everybody else is doing it--right? How can it be wrong then? The Pharisees of Jesus’ time were full of sin and yet to the general public they appeared to be righteous. “Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men.” (Matt. 23:28 NKJV) They had gotten the people of their day to swallow their religion with all the additions and man-made commandments they had made.

The standard for a righteous man has been so lowered over the years that in the public’s eyes even if you have not worshipped the Lord in a regular assembly of the saints for the past 20 years you are still headed straight to heaven just so you are a believer.

If you had the opportunity to get a hold of an old church roll book from say 100 years ago you would probably be shocked as you would see notations made in the margins of people being withdrawn from as per 2 Thess. 3:6, “But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us.” (NKJV)

Since we today have decided what love is and have taken it out of God’s hands it is no longer considered to be an act of love to withdraw from sinners who will not repent even though the purpose was “that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” (1 Cor. 5:5 NKJV) That is about as noble and as loving a reason as one could have and yet today if we were to practice discipline in the church by withdrawing fellowship from those living in sin and who will not repent it would be considered unloving and unchristian even though an inspired apostle commanded it. It would be considered legalism gone wild. Have we made our own religion as did the Pharisees and scribes and lawyers of Jesus’ day?

It is getting very hard to be a preacher today unless you do not mind going along with the crowd. The trouble is the crowd is heading to a hot, hot spot and the preacher will be going with them if he does not preach against sin. The preacher is to preach the truth and support it, not go along with the crowd.

My whole point in this article is how we have come to the point in faith where the faith we have is no longer associated with obedience and obedience is now seen as legalism. The truth is disobedience is sin. Obedience is faithfulness. There are far worse things that can happen to a man than to be called a legalist by one who does not want to obey.

“And having been perfected (Jesus-DS), he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him.” (Heb. 5:9 NKJV)

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matt. 7:21 NKJV) Do you want to be like Jesus? If so start condemning sin and be obedient. You will not be working your way to heaven in doing so. You will simply be an obedient Christian, not a disobedient one. Of the two whom do you think will receive God’s grace on the last day?

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