What Most People Find Acceptable

When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there.   Deuteronomy 18:9

As the people of God gathered at the edge of the Promised Land, Moses had one last opportunity to prepare them. What would the community do when one of their number broke God’s law? Would God’s people confront the problem, or would they ignore it? A culture can be defined as “what most people think is acceptable.” The way in which the community responded to different kinds of evil would determine which ones would multiply and which ones would diminish.

Moses challenged the people of God to create a culture conducive to holiness—to regard every sin as God does. This is a burning issue for the church today. What most people consider acceptable in a church will multiply, and what is unacceptable in that church will diminish. If a member of Christ’s body refuses to give up a pattern of sin, the most powerful statement that can be made this side of God’s final judgment is the disapproval of the whole community.

In ancient Israel, it would not be long before you got the message: “Around here we live by God’s law. If you honor his law, you will be blessed; if you fail to live up to God’s law, you will be forgiven; if you flout God’s law, you will be in trouble.”

A healthy church is a community of people who care enough to encourage one another in the pursuit of a consistent, holy life. It is also a community of people who care enough to confront one another over issues of sin.

Our choices are heavily influenced by our nature and our environment, and when we come to Christ, God changes both. He changes our nature through the new birth, and he brings us into a new environment called the church. We need the encouragement of the church because we are often weak, and we need the restraint of God’s people because we are often willful.

For further reading, see 1 Corinthians 5