Has God Lowered His Standards?

“Then God said, let us make mankind in our own image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. 27. So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” – Genesis 1:26-27.

Recently, I got into a conversation with a professor who was struggling with the above question. After much observation and comparison of our Christian life today and that of disciples, we begged to ask if there is anything that has changed at all with God? Failure to honor or be obedient to God in the Old Testament cost people a lot. Consider lack of obedience and honoring God resulted in Moses and Aaron not entering the land of Canaan (Numbers 20:1-13), the Israelites army being defeated at Ai (Joshua 7), Hophni, Phinehas, & Eli lost their lives and the opportunity for their family to be involved in the priesthood (1 Samuel 2:27-36) just to name a few. Also, in the New Testament failure to honor God and be obedient to him has consequences. Ananias and Saphira lost their own lives because they lied to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5). Failure to be obedient and honor God is sin and there are consequences to it.

The above sins may not sound so grave in today’s generation, the priesthood doesn’t function anymore and we rarely hear of such severe judgment of sin. However, the same God exist. Sadly we don’t consider God anymore because we have become our own standard of what is right and wrong. Pastors and bishops seem to be considered the standard of what Christianity should be. Moral standards have become relative for most. So what is the moral standard for life or Christianity?

CREATED IN THE STANDARD OF GOD

Genesis 1:26-27 lays a good foundation in understanding what the moral standard is for life in general. This scripture comes before the fall and the following truths should be considered as we read it consider the following truths:

  1. God did not create man in the standard of anything in creation.

  2. Both men and women were created in the standard of God.

  3. The rest of creation was placed under mankind to care for it.

Since God has created men and women in his own image it means that He is the standard for everyone especially those who have subjected themselves to Him as their Lord. The same standard He set in the Old Testament is still the same in the New Testament. The same God that guided the Israelites is still the same God guiding us today. God is the standard by which we determine right and wrong, good and evil, moral & immoral after all we’re made in his image. Let us conclude by giving a few examples in the scriptures that shows us that God is the standard:

  1. The standard of marriage is the relationship of Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:22-25).

  2. The standard of loving others is how God loved us (1st John 3:16; 4:7-12).

  3. The standard of holiness is God (1st peter 1:14-16).

  4. The standard of servanthood is Christ (Matthew 20:25-28).

  5. The standard of perfection is God himself (Matthew 5:43-48).

  6. Standard of forgiving is God himself (Ephesians 4:32)

  7. The standard of our attitude towards others is to be like that of Christ (Philippians 2:1-11)

Living up to the above standard is not easy and cannot be achieved by our own strength. It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit. In my next blog we shall address how God enables us to keep up to his standard.

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