LIVING GODS STANDARDS

ROMANS 2:12-16

12All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. 14(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, v they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) 16This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

2: 12-15 People are condemned not for what they don’t know but for what they do with what they know. Those who know God’s written Word and his law will be judged by them. Those who have never seen a Bible still know right from wrong, and they will be judged because they did not keep even the standards dictated by their own consciences. Our modern-day sense of fair play and individual rights often resists the idea of God’s judgment. But keep in mind that people constantly violate even the standards they create for themselves.

2: 12-15 If you traveled around the world, you would find evidence in every society and culture of God’s moral law. For example, all cultures prohibit murder, yet in all societies that law has been broken. We belong to a stubborn, sinful race. We know what is right because we know what rules we want in place to help to protect us and our loved ones from being violated. Many of these laws, perhaps selfishly derived, line up with what God has also revealed in his Word. But it isn’t enough to know what is right; we must also do it. Instead, we often insist on our own autonomy and claim the right to define what is right and wrong for ourselves. Admit to yourself and to God that you fit the human pattern and frequently fail to live up to your own standards (much less to God’s standards). That’s the first step toward forgiveness and healing.

2: 16 Today, many people profess an upright and moral public image and piously rail against others who disagree with them but maintain a private and very different personal life. God knows, and he will judge everyone’s secret life. He will be thorough and just. No one will be exempt. Tyndale NIV Life Application Study Bible

ON THE WAY HOME WALK WITH JESUS and make sure that you are living a life of GODS standard so that others can see your witness and testimony of what JESUS CHRIST can do and has done in your life.