Isaiah 3

We hear a lot (especially in the church) about the reality of God’s acceptance. God accepts you as you are. God loves you as you are. And yes He does. There is no doubt about it! There is nothing we can do to earn His love; we already have it. But it is a fallacy to believe that God wants to leave us the way He finds us. It is because He loves us that He wants to change our hearts and lives for the better. As Max Lucado wrote in the extended title of his 1998 book, “God loves you just the way you are, but He refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to be… just like Jesus.”

I think there is a great temptation to allow the knowledge of God’s acceptance of us to embolden us in our sin. I’m certainly not saying this is always the case, but it sure seemed to be a problem in Israel: “Jerusalem staggers, Judah is falling; their words and deeds are against the Lord, defying his glorious presence. The look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves.” (vs 8-9)

It is sometimes disheartening to look at the world around us and observe just how far we have fallen from God’s ideal. And in many cases, it’s not even about seeing others (or ourselves) struggling with sin. Often, it appears the struggle is over—that we have given in, and sin has won, and we now resort to demonizing as hypocrites and judgers those who would dare to articulate the ideals God has set forth in the Scriptures.

Bible commentator David Guzik wrote about that phenomenon: “One of the most destructive lies of our time is that it is wrong or hypocritical to have a standard that we don’t live up to. No one has always told the truth, yet it is right and good to teach our children, ‘Don’t lie.’ It would be wrong, and destructive, for someone to answer, ‘You can’t tell your child not to lie. You have lied in the past. You are a hypocrite.’ This attitude in our society translates into a certain result: a wholesale lowering of standards. Also, the charge of hypocrisy is false. It is not hypocritical to promote a standard you don’t perfectly meet. Hypocrisy is when you pretend to keep the standard when you do not, or think it is fine for you to not keep the standard, when you think others should.”

What happens when we, as a society, lower our standards? What happens when we ignore God’s ideals? Society will degenerate into evil and foolishness: “People will be against each other; everyone will be against his neighbor. Young people will not respect older people, and common people will not respect important people. At that time a man will grab one of his brothers from his own family and say, ‘You have a coat, so you will be our leader. These ruins will be under your control.’” (vs 5-6)

When we purposely and willfully deviate from the standards God has set for us, we will become so foolish that control over our society will be given to those who have no business being in power. You have a coat… hmmm, that would make you a great leader! Isaiah is painting a picture of people who have lost all common sense. This is the fate of those who recite “neither do I condemn you” without continuing on to the “go and sin no more.” The acceptance and the exhortation go hand in hand. To remove either one is to cripple the power of the Spirit in our lives.

God has high standards because He loves us. God has high standards because He wants to protect us from the consequences of throwing ourselves headlong into sin. God has high standards because His way of doing things brings peace and happiness in life. God has high standards because He wants the very best for us.

Jesus never turned up His nose, and He never lowered His standards. As we follow in His footsteps, we can also practice both disciplines.