I was recently seeing a lot of posts on Facebook, by a few friends, of pictures with "Positive Insirational Quotes" and I just had to sit and think a while. Now I am ready to deal with the crafty false teaching that these things are portraying as Christian thought.
One quote from a recent song on the radio "Free to be me" by Francesca Battistelli: "Perfection is my enemy. On my own I'm so clumsy, but on your shoulders I can see... I'm free to be me... you're free to be you." While we could never earn forgiveness of sin or salvation on our own, when one becomes a child of God (by spiritual birth, not natural birth John 1:12) we become in fact slaves to righteousness. We are not our own, but we have been bought with a price. If we have in deed been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, then we should not be satisfied with our own sin or even the best we can do, but rather "be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect."
Another recent song says that we are "Something worth dying for", but truly we are not anything worth dying for. We are wicked, awful, wretched sinners who deserve judgement, eternal damnation, and God's wrath. Because of God's mercy and grace, He sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die in our place. This was not to purchase us due to our worth, but to make us something that shows God's glory. In Heaven, we will not be singing this song, but rather praising the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This man centered gospel is no true gospel at all, but one where we justify our sin and say that God owes us something because we are so special.
Back to the pictures and "inspiration", one said this: "I will hold myself to a standard of grace, not perfection" While I agree that we ought not hold others to a standard of perfection in regards to human judgement, we are not to condone sin or accept addictions or such things, but rather plead with God to "create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" and "cast me not away from your presence, Lord, take not your Holy Spirit from me" as David said in Psalm 51.
The one that really got me going was this one, which is stark contrast to Jesus' own words: "love the people who treat you right and forget about the ones who don't." One might head over to Jesus' words in Matthew 5 on this topic. Jesus said to love your enemies, do good to those who mistreat you, and that by this behavior we would show His love and maybe even win for Christ the hearts of those who would persecute and hate us.
Don't get me wrong, some of these little posters are actually good. Some are biblical and inspiring. We just need to be careful to discern the truth from a lie, to get our counsel from God's Word rather than the songs on the radio. It is sad that so many of the songs out nowadays are just people singing about themselves, their desires, and their right to sin. We should examine the music that comes into our homes, to guard our children's hearts and our own, and to seek God in all things so that He gets all the glory He is due.
One quote from a recent song on the radio "Free to be me" by Francesca Battistelli: "Perfection is my enemy. On my own I'm so clumsy, but on your shoulders I can see... I'm free to be me... you're free to be you." While we could never earn forgiveness of sin or salvation on our own, when one becomes a child of God (by spiritual birth, not natural birth John 1:12) we become in fact slaves to righteousness. We are not our own, but we have been bought with a price. If we have in deed been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, then we should not be satisfied with our own sin or even the best we can do, but rather "be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect."
Another recent song says that we are "Something worth dying for", but truly we are not anything worth dying for. We are wicked, awful, wretched sinners who deserve judgement, eternal damnation, and God's wrath. Because of God's mercy and grace, He sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die in our place. This was not to purchase us due to our worth, but to make us something that shows God's glory. In Heaven, we will not be singing this song, but rather praising the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This man centered gospel is no true gospel at all, but one where we justify our sin and say that God owes us something because we are so special.
Back to the pictures and "inspiration", one said this: "I will hold myself to a standard of grace, not perfection" While I agree that we ought not hold others to a standard of perfection in regards to human judgement, we are not to condone sin or accept addictions or such things, but rather plead with God to "create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" and "cast me not away from your presence, Lord, take not your Holy Spirit from me" as David said in Psalm 51.
The one that really got me going was this one, which is stark contrast to Jesus' own words: "love the people who treat you right and forget about the ones who don't." One might head over to Jesus' words in Matthew 5 on this topic. Jesus said to love your enemies, do good to those who mistreat you, and that by this behavior we would show His love and maybe even win for Christ the hearts of those who would persecute and hate us.
Don't get me wrong, some of these little posters are actually good. Some are biblical and inspiring. We just need to be careful to discern the truth from a lie, to get our counsel from God's Word rather than the songs on the radio. It is sad that so many of the songs out nowadays are just people singing about themselves, their desires, and their right to sin. We should examine the music that comes into our homes, to guard our children's hearts and our own, and to seek God in all things so that He gets all the glory He is due.
