How Lenient Will God Be?

"Not every one that saith unto me, "Lord, Lord" shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in Heaven." Matt. 7:21 (KJV) Open your Bible some time and read the rest of this sermon by Jesus to get the full picture (verses 21-27), but this verse sums it up. I've often wondered, "Just how lenient or how strict is God going to be on judgment day?" I'm sure I'm not the only one who's pondered this question. And I'm sure people's answers range just as wide. There are many people who believe that as long as they've been baptized and saved, they're "In". Then there are those, I'm sure that believe one little mistake will surely send them to Hell. So I wanted to take a moment this week to think about this.

The Bible does indeed say "repent and be baptized," when the crowds asked "What shall we do?" Acts 2:37-38 But, when some people stop there, they miss out on verse 42 that explains the "continuing stedfastly in doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer." Yes, we're all going to fall and fail after we repent, but continuing stedfastly is key. James has numerous reminders for us that we must be "doers." Chapter 1:22-25 says "...be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, his is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continuith therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.."(KJV) And chapter 2, verse 17 (NIV) says, "In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." And verse 26, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." (KJV)

As we've been reading through the Old Testament in our one-year Bible-reading program, I've taken notice of many occasions where the Israelites were punished for one mistake. Many times it just came down to the principle of not being obedient to God. Look at Numbers 20; Aaron was removed from his priesthood and died because he did not trust enough in the Lord to honor Him as holy in the sight of the Israelites. This instance alone, not even to mention the other cases of Israelite disobedience, made me wonder how strict will our judgment day be. I, for one, am going to err on the side of caution. With something as important as my salvation, I don't want to take a chance that God will be lenient on me. This attitude that God will be lenient, in my opinion, is just another way that Satan tries to convince us "it's ok", "just a little of this or that won't hurt", etc. If we've read God's word, we know better. Unfortunately, many times we do not know what God's word says about certain issues. We've trusted what we've heard and been told from our generations past and haven't taken up our responsibility to search the scriptures, ourselves. Or even worse, we know what the scripture says, but selfishly disregard it to purse our worldly desires, to fit in, to keep up with the Joneses, or so people don't thin kill of us. Satan uses these devices to help us justify our lifestyles and convince us that we're saved and are free to do as we please.

Unfortunately, there are even churches that subscribe to the "lenient" philosophy. (Matt. 15:9, Mark 7:7) "Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Titus 1:16 "They profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." This was in the apostles' time, but not much has changed. There are many verses in the New Testament that advise us on how to live, and how not to live. II Tim. 3 & 4, Col. 3, I John 3: 15-16, I. Thes. 5 are just a few. The list could go on. We've read them, we've heard them, but so many times we do not live by them. Someone once told me, "If you live by God's ways, you'll never go wrong." How true that is! Unfortunately, so many times we disregard the advice God has given us.

Luckily, we don't live in Moses' time. We've been given a new covenant with grace and forgiveness. We have our whole lifetime to repent and do God's will. Yes, we're going to fall, we're going to make some mistakes, we're never going to be perfect like Christ. However, we must not overlook, ignore, diminish, or forget the verses in God's word that remind us that when we repented we made a promise to God to be obedient to Him, to do His will, to follow his commands. The Israelites were punished and put to death for not following through on their promises and being disobedient. Will God allow us to be disobedient? I can't answer for Him, but I'm going to live on the safe side and not find out the hard way! This is why I ask, how secure are you in your walk? If you believe the Lord will be lenient and are living by man's commandments, have you searched the scriptures yourself? Are you a doer of the word? Or has Satan moved in and deceived you? I want to encourage us all to search and study God's word, to fight the fight, and not give up trying to be Christ-like. We may never get it perfect, but there's a principle of obedience we serve when we try. No one can answer the question of how lenient or strict God will be on the day of judgment. Only God knows that. But wouldn't it be sad to find out too late that the things we did that we thought God would let slide, were the things condemning us forever. I urge us all to never take for granted God's grace and forgiveness. Let us not be deceived. We are deceived, if we believe everyone is saved that says, "Lord, Lord." Because only those that do the will of our Father will enter into Heaven. (Matt. 7:21)

I Peter 5:8 "Be sober, be viligant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." (KJV)

I Cor. 15:58 "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." (KJV)