Jesus Remains the Same

How are we as Christians supposed to live and handle ourselves in this world today?  It can be very difficult.  With the elections of 2012 over, President Obama has won his second term in office, but also gay marriage has become legal in more states, and so has gambling, and even the legalization of marinara.  Abortion continues to be an issue of great division, and extreme right members of the Republican party who call themselves the Tea Party, declare they stand for who God, but seem hostile, intolerant and racist.

I have heard Christians say many things, one is that we have to accept that changes going on in our society, that things change as society changes.  My response to that is that God does not change and neither does the Word of the God.  We may by living under grace, but the law still stands. 

Sin is sin.  Sin does three things.  First, it separates us from God, secondly, it impacts other people in a destructive ways, and third it leads to death.  Nothing that is good comes from sin.  Also, sin is sin, whether it is lying or murder it is all the same in God's eyes.  We tend to judge things differently, and that is understandable, but God is Holy, that any sin at all is totally filyhy to him.  We can never measure up to God.  If we accept Jesus we do not have to.  He has paid our sin debt for us.  We were born into sin because of the sin of Adam, the first man, but we have eternal life because of Jesus Christ.

The question remains.  How do we, as Christians conduct ourselves in our ever increasingly sinful culture and society?  There are a number of ways to answer this question, but in Hebrews chapter 13 Paul provides information and insight on this very thing.

In this last chapter of this letter that Paul writes to the Hebrews he provides instructions and exhortations about daily life and living.  He starts off the chapter with the words "keep on loving" I think he did that because it is hard to love each other sometimes based on our behavior.  He also reminds those who read his letter that no matter what happens God will never leave us or forsake us.  He also states that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  No matter what we do, or what society dictates, our loving Savior is consistent.  We can be secure in who He is daily.

Hebrews 13:1-10

New International Version (NIV)

Concluding Exhortations

13 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. ² Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. ³ Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

⁴ Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. ⁵ Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”

⁶ So we say with confidence,

“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?”

⁷ Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. ⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

⁹ Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so. ¹⁰ We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.