Is your commitment to God defined by what you don't do? I don't do drugs, I don't steal, I don't sleep with my neighbor's spouse, I don't kill. I don't sleep in church. This is a passive approach.
OR is your commitment defined by what you do? I Love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. I love my neighbor as much as I love myself. I obey my Creator in going, telling, teaching and baptizing. I take notes at church with a mind to telling others what I have learned. See how this is more active?
In the Old Testament being a believer in the One True God meant you followed the rules - it was defined by what you did not do. Now you were still to care for the poor, that has always been prominent in God's teaching. But rules ruled the day, and many of those were about appropriate sacrifice to pay for our daily sin.
I see that in the New Testament Jesus teaches us to go, make, do, give, serve. The whole game has changed. We are now saved by the Gift of Grace, the gift of perfection hung on a cross, blood covering us, the filter by which we are now perceived by The Creator - if you accept His free gift.
But are you an Old Testament believer or a New Testament believer? Many churches in which we gather by the thousands teach us how to be good. We are holy because of what we don't do. David Platt observes that the American church is perhaps the only organization in the world that defines success by what we don't do.
Reaching the world with the Gospel means going, showing, teaching and serving a world in need of Jesus.
Imagine the impact if all of our church leaders, across every denomination, actually taught us how to be an Acts church, and if we the people would be disciples. If the media talked about all the good that the Christian chuch is doing, for the nations, for the world, for God's beloved; wow!
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