Today’s society is a culture that in reality no longer qualifies as the word “society.”
Society as defined in the Cambridge dictionary is: people considered as a group, or a group of people who live together in a particular social system.
Today in the United States as well as in Europe, in addition to other countries throughout the world, people may live in the same geographical regions but they no longer follow the same social system.
A social system or social structure is described as: the internal institutionalized relationships built up by persons living within a group (such as a family or community) especially with regard to the hierarchical organization of status and to the rules and principles regulating behavior per the Marion- Webster dictionary.
What is lacking in today’s society is the “principles regulating behavior.”
What were these principles?
They are what is referred to as ethics.
The defining ethical code that originally controlled and governed these nations was Christianity. Christianity worker from the Bible. Within the Bible are a list of rules and regulations that are called commandments. Yet most have decided these commandments are antiquated and useless so as a result nations around the world are falling to chaos and disorder, which results in the beginning sentence of this article.
Jesus Christ said this about the commandments and laws:
Matthew 5: 17 “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. 19 So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. 20 “But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!
“I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved.”
So the commandments for the most part are still in effect. This does not mean we are to stone people for their sins. That was taken out of our hands by Jesus Himself hanging upon the cross. However we are to follow those commandments or laws as they were defined by Jesus and His apostles within the New Testament, and if they were not listed in the New Testament we were to refer to how they were originally addressed for the most part in the Old Testament. Especially those that deal with personal interaction with others within a society.
Most in today’s world diminish the commandments and their meanings especially within the “societies” we live within. This is witnessed daily as people speed down the roads and highways going faster than the posted speed limit. This is just one minor example of how the commandments of the Bible have become irrelevant. But what did Jesus say was the result of doing this?
“So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven.”
You are making of yourself to be the “least in the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Yet millions if not billions do this very thing and think nothing of it. In fact they go about saying that those that say you should follow the commandments are teaching “legalism.”
Yet the true meaning of legalism is to go about performing rituals without knowing or even caring why these rituals are done. A very visual example of these are found within the Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church.
However, why do these two churches now have these rituals? Both of these churches date back to the beginnings of Christianity. So in some way they recognize the need to follow the commandments, even though they have lost their way.
Following the commandments does not require nor is legalism. It required love of God and His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.
John 14:15 “If you love me, obey my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. 18 No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. 19 Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. 20 When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”
Jesus knows that we cannot do this fully on our own, which is why being filled with the Holy Spirit is something we should seek after. For it will help us to fulfil and follow the commandments. For Jesus makes it clear that we must accept the commandments and obey them.
“He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.” (KJV)
He that hath – echo – I have, hold, possess
Possess – to have or own something, or to have a particular quality.
We are to not just accept but to take as our own the commandments that are within the Bible. To live them and reflect them. Yet most reject this. Most per Jesus Himself are saying that they do not love Him, but in fact love themselves more. They refuse ownership of the commandments and choose to live their lives as they see fit to live it.
They embrace chaos over order and as a result we have the world we now live within. For all evil comes from humanity, while all love and peace comes from God.