We Cannot Be Too Righteous.

A friend of mine tried to give me some advice that we as Christians should be righteous but not too righteous. Which means that we shouldn’t try to follow every “rule” in the Bible because we will be miserable. For example: Its okay to have sex as long as we use condoms because if we never have sexual pleasure then we would be miserable.

First of all there is no reason to not try to be too righteous because we can never be too righteous. If a Christian can become too righteous or righteous at all then we will no longer require the grace of Jesus Christ, and that would make the Bible false.

The gist of what my friend meant was we should acknowledge that God is real to get into heaven while living life as good citizens. Pretty much don’t unlawfully kill someone, don’t rape women, don’t steal anything, occasionally give money to a homeless person, treat people fairly. But, sins that are too fun to give up like sexual immorality, drunkenness, maybe lying, greed, and selfishness should be ignored because fighting our most pleasurable sins would make us miserable and too righteous.

The Bible isn’t about making us righteous because that will never happen. The Bible is to make us holy. Not holy by who can be the best Christian by following the most rules, but holy by trusting that God’s law isn’t to hinder our fun, instead it is to protect us from the consequences of sin. The Bible isn’t even about following a bunch of rules. It is more than that. The Bible is a collection of records, poems, words of wisdom, prophesies, and songs to help us grow a closer relationship with God.

Studying the Bible is to not make us miserable although we sometimes feel miserable when our sinful cravings kick in. The Bible is  to protect us from the destruction of sin. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.