Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:19

Murder, adultery, theft – all three are usually well-accepted no-no’s in Christianity. Nearly everyone accepts that God forbids these things. There are other no-no’s that too often, we overlook. They aren’t “big” in our eyes and too often we justify them because they won’t “hurt anyone”.

White lies, crooked speech, and sensuality are just a few of these lesser no-no’s. With God, though, a sin is a sin. No sin weighs greater than another in its wrongness because every sin is something that interferes with the intimacy we have with God.

Christ warns us in this verse not to relax our standards. As mature Christians we should want to obey God’s commandments even if they are inconvenient because it means a closer walk with Him.

Christianity is not a buffet. You can’t pick and choose which commandments you will obey and which commandments you will ignore or relax.

Not only will this harm your relationship with Christ and ruin your witness to others, but the severity of such an error could have eternal consequences. It is bad enough to damage your relationship with Christ but to teach others to do the same will earn you a spot at the end of the line.

The reverse of this though will move you to the front of the line – a life of obedience means a life before the throne. True intimacy with God means true obedience. We should all pray to be made more obedient so that we might see more of God’s plan for our lives and so that we might see more of God himself.

There is nothing greater than that – so why settle for table scraps when we could be seated next to God?

Precious Jesus,

We make a joke of your sacrifice when we settle for less than you have called us to. We mislead others when we think our sidestepping won’t affect the way they view you. We are to reflect you but too often we fall short. We thank you for the forgiveness that is so readily available and ask that your Holy Spirit convict us of the areas and the ways that we try to scoot by. Help us to grow in maturity and make us to walk upright all for your glory. In your name we pray, amen.

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