Behavior Matters

 Behavior Matters For many years, every weekday at 8:50 AM, Charlotte's WBT played "A Moment of Hope," an attempt by a prominent local preacher to inspire, encourage, and benefit the citizens of Charlotte. I would listen to it most days as I prepared for work.Many of these two-minute offerings dripped with Protestant saccharin, requiring some effort to endure them. One morning, however, I could listen for only the first fifteen seconds before turning the radio off in disgust. The preacher began (my paraphrase): I've really noticed lately how external our society is. We care so much about how we look and how we dress. It matters too much how much our house costs and what model car we drive. That's really quite dismaying because how we look and how webehave have no eternal value . . .. (This is when I cut him off.) It was hard to believe this outright lie coming from a respected member of the clergy! How we behave has no eternal value? It made me question the man's education, and then I remembered he graduated from a mainstream Protestant seminary. Everythingfell into place. Core Protestant theology, especially the mainstream variety, decrees that grace by faith alone is the only thing of eternal value, and behavior—which Protestant theologians consider to be "works"—has no part to play in our eternal life. This Charlotte preacher would likely find a way to defend his statement while maintaining that God wants us to be good people. If pressed, he would probably fall back on the deceptive Protestant line that all one has to do is believe in Jesus, and he will be saved. What we do, as long as we are committed Christians, does not matter in the end. BillyGraham spread and popularized this concept through his crusades, where the song, "Just As I Am, Lord," was a centerpiece. Such Protestants, known to the media culture as the "religious right," are the ones who lead the charge during presidential elections, crying, "Character matters!" One might get the impression that, to them, behavior and character count whenhigh office is on the line but make little difference when eternal life is at risk. Put another way, it appears men have tougher standards than God. Or, it is easier to "get into heaven" than it is to lead others here on earth. This idea has not been thought through. If "heaven" were populated with immortal spirit beings with character and behavior like that seen in people who consider themselves Christians on earth, what would "heaven" be like? Earth—but worse! Theproblems of this world would merely be transported to "heaven" with the added monumental and insurmountable factors of endless life and godlike powers in each being! And we thought we had problems. . . . However, the last two chapters of Revelation do not paint such a picture. The time of the new heaven and the new earth is one in which "there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying; and there shall be no more pain, for the former thingshave passed away" (Revelation21:4). The "former things" are the sins and their consequences that have caused so much death, sorrow, crying, and pain on earth! JesusChrist suggests that behavior and character matter when He says in verse 7, "He who overcomes shall inherit all things." What does a Christian overcome but his own sin, this present evil world, and the Adversary, Satan the Devil? Who will be in God's Kingdom, and who will not? These two chapters make it quite plain: "Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city [of New Jerusalem]. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie" (Revelation22:14-15; cf. 21:8; emphasis ours). This passage makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to deny that those who live upright lives will enter God's Kingdom and those who live sinful lives will not. Righteous behavior and character certainly do matter to God! We can go to no higher source to receive the answer to "Does our behavior have eternal value?" than to Jesus Christ Himself. A man came to Him and asked him this very question: "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternallife?" His answer is unambiguous: "If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments" (Matthew19:17). The commandments are a code of behavior that builds godly character in those who keep them, and God wants only those with godly character—character like His Son's—in His Kingdom. Behavior matters. Character matters. God's commandments matter. They will not "pay our way" into God's Kingdom, since God's salvation is a free gift and it is humanly impossible to purchase or earn it (Romans6:23; Ephesians 2:8). Nonetheless, when God judges us "according to [our] deeds" (Romans2:5-11; cf. I John 2:28-29), the record of our behavior—displaying what we truly are—will make the difference between eternal life and eternal death. - Richard T. Ritenbaugh