PROOF OF GROWTH 2- MORAL EXCELLENCE

An “evangelist” was telling me passionately about how his mentor had helped a lot of prostitutes. He claimed his mentor would drive to a red light district to pick up one or two prostitutes. He would “romance” them in the car. Afterwards, he drives them home where his wife is waiting for them to preach the gospel to them. I was shocked.

One of the signs that you are growing as a believer is the ability to make the right choices as led by the Spirit of God.

God’s standard will not be lowered to accommodate our weakness. God made it clear that we do not have to struggle to find His will- abstain from sexual immorality.

Paul told us, “Don’t allow love to turn into lust, setting off a downhill slide into sexual promiscuity, filthy practices, or bullying greed. Though some tongues just love the taste of gossip, those who follow Jesus have better uses for language than that. Don’t talk dirty or silly. That kind of talk doesn’t fit our style. Thanksgiving is our dialect.” (Ephesians 5:3‭-‬4 MSG)

If you are ever caught in a place and you will have to start explaining why you are there, is it not better not to even start it at all? There are some forms of speaking that must be far from you as you grow. Growth refines our walk and our talk.

One of the reasons why we study the Word of God is to attain maturity and moral excellence. We get trained and we develop the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.

How do we handle other people’s money? Can you be trusted with what is not yours? Do you borrow and convert to yours without returning? That is what Proverbs calls wickedness.

We must not be believers with stickers on our car that speak better than our character. You cannot be speaking in tongues but still fornicating. We must be believers whose lives are free of offences and full of love.

We must be believers whose virtue is patience and would not call “cutting-corners” breakthrough or compromise as testimonies. We must be God’s gentle fire- burning in the morning and ablaze at night.

When our character is strong, our influence gets better. We will be the man on our street whose voice cannot be turned down or counsel rejected.

As believers, we are called to Moral Excellence. We cannot drop the ball. God’s standard is so high. In court, lustful thought is adultery and anger is murder.

Do not drop the ball.