Day 8/22 – Choosing Your Standard

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Thoughts from the Diary of a Desperate Man by Walter A Henrichsen (“Walt”)
Choosing Your Standard
Day Two Hundred Thirty-four

“All who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.” Romans 2:12

People are better served accepting God’s standards rather than insisting on living by their own. Most of what God disallows, our conscience condemns, as Paul noted: ”When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.” 308

On the other hand, much of what our conscience prohibits, God allows. The taboos and mores of your culture appreciably influence your conscience. Things like not gambling, walking under a ladder, not killing animals, may make your conscience feel guilty when transgressed, but God does not prohibit them.

We get angry and judge someone who cuts in front of us. However, regardless of our opinion, God may not condemn the offender who may not have realized that he did it. Let us not forget, “we shall all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ.”309 You get to decide whether you wish to be judged by God’s standard or your own. But you must make the decision now. If you want to be judged by God’s standard, you cannot judge others by your own standard. If you choose your own standard, God says you must keep it perfectly yourself, and you don’t have available the forgiveness of Jesus Christ if you fail. His propitious death is only available to those who live by God’s standards.

308 Romans 2:14
309 Romans 14:10

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Psalm 110-112 1 Corinthians 5 (New King James Version)

Psalm 110-112
Announcement of the Messiah’s Reign
A Psalm of David.
110
The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
2
The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion.
Rule in the midst of Your enemies!
3
Your people shall be volunteers
In the day of Your power;
In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning,
You have the dew of Your youth.
4
The Lord has sworn
And will not relent,
“You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek.”
5
The Lord is at Your right hand;
He shall [a]execute kings in the day of His wrath.
6
He shall judge among the nations,
He shall fill the places with dead bodies,
He shall [b]execute the heads of many countries.
7
He shall drink of the brook by the wayside;
Therefore He shall lift up the head.
Praise to God for His Faithfulness and Justice
111
Praise[c] the Lord!
I will praise the Lord with my whole heart,
In the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.
2
The works of the Lord are great,
Studied by all who have pleasure in them.
3
His work is honorable and glorious,
And His righteousness endures forever.
4
He has made His wonderful works to be remembered;
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion.
5
He has given food to those who fear Him;
He will ever be mindful of His covenant.
6
He has declared to His people the power of His works,
In giving them the [d]heritage of the nations.
7
The works of His hands are verity[e] and justice;
All His precepts are sure.
8
They stand fast forever and ever,
And are done in truth and uprightness.
9
He has sent redemption to His people;
He has commanded His covenant forever:
Holy and awesome is His name.
10
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
A good understanding have all those who do His commandments.
His praise endures forever.
The Blessed State of the Righteous
112
Praise[f] the Lord!
Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
Who delights greatly in His commandments.
2
His descendants will be mighty on earth;
The generation of the upright will be blessed.
3
Wealth and riches will be in his house,
And his righteousness [g]endures forever.
4
Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness;
He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
5
A good man deals graciously and lends;
He will guide his affairs with discretion.
6
Surely he will never be shaken;
The righteous will be in everlasting remembrance.
7
He will not be afraid of evil tidings;
His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
8
His heart is established;
He will not be afraid,
Until he sees his desire upon his enemies.
9
He has dispersed abroad,
He has given to the poor;
His righteousness endures forever;
His [h]horn will be exalted with honor.
10
The wicked will see it and be grieved;
He will gnash his teeth and melt away;
The desire of the wicked shall perish.
Footnotes:
• Psalm 110:5 Lit. break kings in pieces
• Psalm 110:6 Lit. break in pieces
• Psalm 111:1 Heb. Hallelujah
• Psalm 111:6 inheritance
• Psalm 111:7 truth
• Psalm 112:1 Heb. Hallelujah
• Psalm 112:3 stands
• Psalm 112:9 Strength

1 Corinthians 5
Immorality Defiles the Church
5 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even [a]named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! 2 And you are [b]puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. 3 For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord [c]Jesus.
6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore [d]purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed [e]for us. 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Immorality Must Be Judged
9 I wrote to you in my epistle not to [f]keep company with sexually immoral people. 10 Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.
12 For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? 13 But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”
Footnotes:
• 1 Corinthians 5:1 NU omits named
• 1 Corinthians 5:2 arrogant
• 1 Corinthians 5:5 NU omits Jesus
• 1 Corinthians 5:7 clean out
• 1 Corinthians 5:7 NU omits for us
• 1 Corinthians 5:9 associate