Is your Christmas tree still up? Who wants to take it down…it adds a nice feel to the house…the tree took work to put up…AND it’s going to take work to put it ALL away. There is simply no good reason to take down the tree.
But of course there is more than the tree…there is the leftover baked goods and cookies (I still have a bag of fudge in the fridge). We change up our playlists from Christmas music to the regular songs of the year. That too is a little depressing, those songs hold a lot of good memories, but we will enjoy them again at the end of the year.
One of those classics is “Santa Clause is Coming to Town”. Whether your family enjoys the Santa theme of Christmas or passes on it as fiction, we all enjoy this song. Its fun to sing and like it or not it is tied to many memories. What are those lyrics again???
He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake
He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!
-Santa Clause is Coming to Town
I mention this song with its lyrics because I used these words to teach my four-year-old during the Christmas season (by the way she does not believe in Santa, so the following words did not crush her childhood).
We were talking about sin and how God sees all that we do, all of the time. Without thinking I just began quoting the lyrics above. Think about it, when those words are removed from the context of the song, and “God” is placed where we would say “he”…that’s really good theology.
“God sees you when your sleeping, God knows when your awake. God knows if you’ve been bad or good……..”
So Be Good for Goodness Sake
I should say that the title of this post did not come from the song. But from a conversation with an older pastor several years ago. You see, if we want to use the ideas of this lyric to make good theology with a nice jingle, we need to talk about why we need to “be good.”
In the last post (A New Year in the New Covenant) we saw, in short, that when God brings us into life in His family, it is a life in which He as designed that we strive to be “good”. I do not mean that we just become moral, but that we strive to abide by the moral stands of God’s law as a guide to life in relationship with God.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Psalm 119:105
We observed one side of that with regard to positive commands to be followed. Today I wish to speak to what we resist and reject: sin.
That pastor I mentioned above told me about his sermon in which his main phrase was “Be Good for Goodness Sake.” Here was his meaning and the point of this post: Be good ( honor God in thought and life) for goodness sake (so that the “goodness” of God’s blessing may rest on your life).
A part of life in the New Covenant is “putting off the old way” of life. Paul commands this in Ephesians 4, and the Old Testament prophets spoke of the time when God would bring this about.
As Paul Washer has said many times, “If you have a new relationship with God, you WILL have a new relationship with sin.”
Hear the psalmist:
“O you who love the LORD, hate evil!”
Psalm 97:10
Love for God will be accompanied by hatred of evil. The same Spirit who works in us the new heart which loves the “good” things, things we read of in the previous post, is the same Spirit who convicts us of sin. Jesus said:
And when he [Holy Spirt] comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me;
John 16:8-9
If you have a living a faith, a faith which leads unto life, a part of that life will be a hatred of evil: inward and outward. The lusts and wicked drives in your heart will alarm you, as well as the injustices and exploitations around you. You will hate it.
Why?
Why will there be hatred. Why should there be hatred. Because the Spirit of God is conforming you into the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). So, that which Jesus loves and rejoices in we too learn to be glad in. Just so, that which stirs His righteous wrath will stir in us holy indignation.
We should hate sin. We should seek out what the Bible says about it. It is a doctrine in scripture that is both deep and wide, and the deeper we go the more sinful we see sin to be. It is no small matter and it comes with great consequence.
Jeffery Johnson, in his book Kingdom of God, rightly says, when speaking of Adam’s sin,
Undoubtedly, Adam and his wife did not think one simple sin would lead to the destruction of the world. Could they have imagined the horrific wars, famines, natural disasters, diseases, birth defects, murders, social and political corruption, sexual immorality, homosexuality, genocides, abortions, heresies, idolatry, witchcraft, hell, and lake of fire that was soon to follow?
– Jeffrey Johnson
There are many ways we could approach both the wickedness of sin and it’s consequences. However, I wish for us to consider one powerful aspect. Your sin does not merely effect you. One of the most dangerous thoughts we can have is the lack of thought, lack of consideration of the consequences of sin.
“Oh, I did this last week and nothing bad happened. I guess God didn’t mind…I’ll do it again.” Do you know that thought? When did that last come to mind? It came to mind, maybe in different ways, the last time you “transgressed God law”.
Sin is heavy, consequential, and impacts others. One of our greatest motives to holiness in not only love for God but love for others. Your sin is not quiet, even in that corner, closet, or other county or country. It’s aftermath sends ravenous repercussions into the lives around us, even when we don’t realize it.
So Be Good for Goodness Sake. When tempted may one of your motives to resist be that you do not wish to harm your family. Remember Achan in Joshua who stole from the Lord that which was to be destroyed (Joshua 7)? He and his whole family were burned for his sin. That is a great example of sin not merely effecting the one who commits it.
That older pastor wanted for his people what I hope for you, and rightfully so, for it is fitting for New Covenant believers: God’s blessing on you and yours. To live in sin is to strain the relationship you have with God. Grace is not removed, but the warmth of God’s presence will not be so familiar. Do you wish for more of God’s mercy and kindness on your family: be good for goodness sake.
Reject sin, resist temptation, live the life that God has designed for the redeemed.
One final proverb to carry out this thought and conclude:
Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life, but he who rejects reproof leads others astray.
Proverbs 10:17
Do you see the transition from the first half of the verse and into the second. The first portion regarding obedience speaks personally, or individually, of blessing, the blessing of life. However, to not obey, to “reject reproof leads others astray.” The foolishness of sin, our stubbornness in rejecting the ways of God in this New Covenant life, will negatively effect others. Let us love our neighbors, brethren , and family by:
- Praying for a greater awareness of sin in our hearts.
- Asking God to make known to you from scripture the sinfulness of sin.
- Noting what the Bible says about sin so that in becomes more weighty in your thinking of it.
- Resisting the temptations that we face so as not to bring disaster on our loved ones.
- Pursueing God’s blessing by following in hatred of evil (be good for goodness sake)
The Reforming Raker 