Called to a higher standard

Welcome to A Higher Standard. My goal is to understand what it means for a man to live according to the higher standard that Jesus Christ calls us to. I plan to confess my sins and shortcomings here and talk about what redemption is found through the confession and repentance from that sin. More than that, I want to rejoice in the freedom found through living to the high standards that Jesus' followers are called to.

I decided to start this exercise after I had a significant "come to Jesus" moment yesterday. I realized that I had been causing a lot of instability in my household because of my poor financial choices. The larger issue was that I was selfish and feeling entitled to my immediate wants and desires and didn't take the greater needs of my family into account. While the scope of my behavior was pretty small, the implications were large.

All men should be in community with other people so they can be held accountable to live according to the higher standard and I wrote a message to my community explaining that I had been acting selfishly, and that I realized how destructive my selfishness and feelings of entitlement were. They responded by offering their support and asked how they could help hold me to Jesus’ higher standard. I say this not to explain how I am now going to be perfect, but merely to explain just how blind I was to my selfishness and how awesome the body of Jesus - that is to say the church, can be when we are subject to the leadership of Christ. I have repented of my overspending and overeating and want to glorify God and model myself after Jesus’ obedience by living to the higher standard of the Kingdom of Heaven.

So what do I mean by being held to a higher standard? I was raised in an evangelical church that battled with legalism and judgment. As such, I believed for most of my life that once I was baptised I had to keep to a certain list of rules in order to maintain my salvation and thus, my place in heaven.

This couldn’t be further from the truth and thankfully, God has revealed what it means to be a part of his Kingdom. The higher standard the followers of Christ are held to is not some list of rules. The higher standard is to live in such a way that God will be glorified, and Jesus uplifted by the way I live my life because I am an ambassador for God’s Kingdom. To say this another way, if I am living to glorify God and lift up Jesus, I don’t need a list of rules because I will want to act in the ways that I should, I will think on the things that I should because I understand that I am a part of the Kingdom of God and as such, I will not cheapen myself or the holiness of God by acting in such a way that he would be ashamed of me or make others reject His Kingdom.

This is what I want to leave you with today. Almighty God loves you and doesn’t care about a list of rules. He wants to be in a covenant relationship with you so much that He has already performed His responsibilities of the covenant as an act of good faith by allowing Jesus to die in your place, and through His resurrection, call you to a greater life! Please be courageous enough to lay down your selfishness and I ask you to hold me accountable as well so that we can glorify God by living to the higher standard we have been called to.