11/02/2025 – Black, White, or Grey; What Color is Our Faith?
Do we go about rationalizing our own actions while claiming to be a servant of God and follower of Jesus? Do we use the good nature of God as an excuse for doing just those portions of His Word that we agree with? Do we believe that this is anything other than outright disobedience and a lie we tell ourselves? If so, then we need to re-evaluate our faith and interpretation of His Word. God may not be forcing us to obey Him or do His will, but that doesn’t diminish its importance in the least. He expects us to obey Him to the letter without quibbling or doing so halfway.
“"If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
John 14:15 ESV
I have known families that spiritually ran like clockwork, and others that seemed to stay in a state of total chaos. Both families were led by parents who were followers of Jesus, and who were faithful people. So, what was it that caused one family to succeed and the other to fail? One of the primary reasons for failure that I could see was something that God never does... the chaotic family was constantly bending rules. The children in the failing family knew that no matter what they did their parents would find a way to accept it, ignore it, or justify it. The result was that there were no hard and fast rules to guide the children. If you were to ask these parents about this they would argue that they loved their kids and were raising them based on the love model of Christ… but is that true?
If we took the scripture verse we began with today and didn’t place it in the context of the Bible as a whole then we might draw that conclusion but taken out of context and inferring that this means that Jesus accepts our disobedience because He loves us is an incorrect inference.
We have choices to make; we can obey or we can disobey. We can obey out of love, we can obey out of fear, we can obey in order to gain something, or we can even obey blindly while knowing we are wrong. All of these are ways we can choose, but the fact remains... there is a right choice and a wrong choice. There is no road of faith that leads between these two and no acceptable middle ground. We serve a black or white God who accepts no grey.
When we are living in a grey world we are this way because we interjected our own will and have strayed from God’s. If that were to suddenly become an real option for us then we would often become confused between right and wrong, and chaos would be the result. Our family of believers ceases to function as it should when we begin using words such as “If”, “maybe”, or phrases like “If you want to.”.
“"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
Luke 14:26 ESV
Perhaps we come to this “grey is ok” way of thinking because God allows us to choose. Scripture is full of “Ifs”, but they are pointing out choices... not creating a variance in God’s will. Listen to the way “If” is used in the following passage of scripture…
“Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.”
Matthew 16:24-27 ESV
There is an “if” here that Jesus uses to show us the choice we must make... He says that we can deny ourselves and follow Him, or go our own way, but the outcome of that choice is firm. There is no grey here; we can give Him our life and live or keep it ourselves and die. Then He warns us that we will be judged according to the choice we make.
So how are we running our lives? How are we running our families? But, most of all, how are we conducting our life of faith? Do we recognize commandments, rules, and laws, or do we approach them with a Wild West type of mentality in which anything goes, and our will either comes before God’s or alters His in some way. Do we do this in a controlled fashion in which our obedience is more white than black so that we can justify ourselves, and feel good about the lighter shade of grey, or is it a darker grey... perhaps even black entirely?
God runs His family like we should run ours... there is no argument in this. Where the rub comes is when we see a wrong choice go without an immediate punishment or consequence. Hugh Hefner, the founder of Playboy magazine, lived a life of debauchery, and hedonism, yet he also lived in a mansion and had a private jet. There didn’t appear to be a consequence to his life of sin, but he eventually died and faced judgement for his actions. God’s will, commandments, and law, didn’t change to accommodate him. Our faith tells us this is true, and it does so because that’s what God’s Word says.
We are judged according to our belief:
“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
John 3:18 ESV
We are judged according to our words:
“I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak,”
Matthew 12:36 ESV
And we are judged according to our actions:
“to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.”
Romans 2:7-8 ESV
There is no outcome in the Bible in which we will not be judged. We should never doubt that we will eventually be judged; so, let’s make our decisions wisely and faithfully when we come upon an “If” in our life of faith. There is no chaos in God’s will, and the gate remains narrow regardless of how much we might want to believe that it is wide. We should do with God’s Word as we want our children to do with ours... obey it. If we do that then there is order and not chaos, light and not dark, life and not death.
So, what color would we use if we were to paint our lives? Always remember that grey is not a shade of white, but is always a shade of black.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the firm boundaries that you set for me as I follow your will. Thank you for the order in all that you do and ask of me. Your steady course allows me to see my destination Father and keeps me moving ever closer to you. I am not confused or confounded by indecision but hold to your unwavering truth. I rest in your Word and find peace in your judgement because I never fear that my next step might slip because I misunderstand your desire for me, or what was right or wrong. Help me Father to raise my children and oversee my family in like fashion. Even as I teach my sons and daughters by placing “ifs” before them, let them be assured and confident in the commandments and rules I have set for them. Let the consequences give them dependable boundaries that keep them from living lives of chaos, and sin. Help me to guide my family as steadily as you guide me. Give me insight into you as I lead my own house and correct me where I falter. I praise you Holy Father for your steadfast love, and for the command you have over my life each day. I rejoice in the comfort you provide, and the peace which flows from your perfect and consistent nature. Make me pure in my faith Father and let there be no grey found in me on my day of judgement. Let every speck of black we washed away by the blood of your Son Jesus Christ. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my steadfast God who knows no shadow or shade of grey.
Amen!
“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
1 John 1:5-8 ESV
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
James 1:17 ESV
Rich Forbes