Seek God’s Approval, Even If You Must Stand Alone

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘<Jesus said,>“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”’ (Matthew 6:1); ‘<Jesus said, “Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.”’ (Luke 6:26)

Acceptance is not to tolerate beliefs countering those of the Lord, but to allow those who believe incorrect viewpoints the ability to change.  Jesus, with one notable exception, graciously and lovingly allowed those who were involved in sinful activities to repent; the Samaritan woman at the well, the adulterous woman about to be stoned, the thieves on the cross.  All of these (and more) Jesus accepted them as they were, gave them His Gospel message of forgiveness, and allowed them the opportunity to accept Him as Lord. 

The exception was when Jesus showed anger was in the Temple courtyard, where Jesus showed His displeasure in righteous anger over the illicit moneychangers (aka ‘the brood of vipers’).  In a sense, while He did beat them with a whip, He allowed them to live and gave them the opportunity to learn from His displeasure and repent, as well.

We all want acceptance and loved by others.  Some take Romans 15:7 (‘Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.’) in an improper context of ‘Acceptance Equals Approval’, and seek approval from all by ‘going with the flow’ and jumping on themes that appear to be popular, or well-intentioned to show our ‘love’ of others.  But if you do so, you are then going against Matthew 6:1, as you are trying to be righteous to gain the approval of other people and falling into the ‘woe’ of Luke 6:26, which is a warning of gaining popularity by ‘pseudo-righteousness’.  We all want everyone’s acceptance, but it cannot be at the cost of losing God’s approval. 

To gain God’s approval with what we do, we must let go of gaining the approval of other people.  We can accept someone who is LGBTQ or who is pro-abortion as a friend, as we can accept someone who is agnostic as a friend as well.  But we should not approve of their actions and make it clear of our disapproval of their lifestyle choices, and if it is a decision of ‘them or God’, we need to choose Jesus 100% of the time. 

Accept loved ones who live counter to the Lord, but let them know they are wrong and that we disapprove, and will not reward behavior that runs counter to the Lord’s precepts.  That does not mean we turn our back on them; on the contrary maintain open communication with them and will help in areas outside of promoting their countering actions. 

When one improperly applies Romans 15:7 which goes against Matthew 6:1 to gain the approval of others, you commit the ‘two evils’ as described in Jeremiah 2:13; you first go against God and His ways (‘the mountain of Living Water’) and then attempt to establish your own set of righteous behavior (‘digging a well that can’t hold water’). Attempting to do so usurps God’s Holy precepts with your own unholy precepts. Even ‘men of the cloth’ unfortunately make this mistake.

When the late Reverend Desmond Tutu stated ‘I can’t worship a ‘homophobic’ God’, he did exactly this.  He first went against God’s Word by approving LGBTQ actions (Leviticus 18:22 & 20:13; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11) and he attached to God an attribute that God does not have (being ‘homophobic’).  God not accepting the sin of LBGTQ actions is not homophobic but is Him being Holy.  God, with the person accepting Christ and repenting of their sin, can accept the person, but He can never accept or approve of their sinful nature.  This is the true context of Romans 15:7; Jesus accepts us as who we are but does not accept our sinful nature.  We must repudiate our sin (and our self-proclaimed ‘righteousness’) through repentance and acceptance of Jesus’ terms of righteousness and precepts to live by, and seek approval from Him alone.