What is the motivation to be moral at all since 'sin' isn't even judged upon, 'believing' is?

Question

(This is for only the "born agains"/evangelicals, since Catholics and other Christian denominations don't believe this)

janejane: you obviously don't know about other opinions in other Christian denominations, By "born agains", I speak mostly about those bible literalists who claim to be 'born again' up and down, the baptists, evangelicals, etc.

All Christians certainly and thank goodness for common sense don't think alike.

Answer 1

Okay, I'm one of the one of those "born agains" that your talking about, and I can say for certain, that no one is going to hell for not believing in Jesus Christ. People go to Hell for lying, stealing, lust, adultery, etc... Its not failure to believe the gospel that sends condemns a person to Hell, its breaking God's Moral Law (10 commandments). In other words, its sin. Now, we don't do good things to get to heaven, we do good things because we are saved.

The forgiveness that is in Jesus Christ is conditional upon "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21). It is a gift that God offers to everyone, but individuals must receive it by repenting and trusting in Christ, or they will remain dead in their sins. No one has biblical grounds to continue in sin, assuming that they are safe just because Jesus died on the cross.

With that now being said, when we are born again, it can actually be called a fulfilled propechey from Ezekiel 11:18-20 "And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence. And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God."

So being born again gives us desires to do the things that please God, and to keep his Moral Law.

Answer 2

You don't say!!! May be six of one, half dozen of the other?

Sins are the symptoms or results of unbelief while fruits of the spirit are results of belief. Sin is judged in the process. If you will recall, Eve did not believe what God said about the tree. Her unbelief of heart, with a little help from a friend, resulted in an act of sin. "Busted," as kids might say.

It is not rocket science for all those you mention to realize that actions follow belief. Rev. 20:8 is about the last summary of the process surrounding sin, which does include actions, and judgment against both actions and fear and unbelief.

Check out Isaiah 55:7-9. Note that actions are viewed by God as wicked while thoughts are considered unrighteous. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Catholics and many others may substitute tradition and church order for the thoughts of God, while remaining very moral. Some very emotional evangelicals may point a finger and say unbelief; but use belief as an excuse to justify faith without works or fruits. They all have a tendency to fall into revolving door sins or fail to glorify God; because they can not evidence the real power of God in their lives, being divorced from the truth in this matter.

I hope you see that all wind up on the same boat, the Titanic, unless, before God; they and you and we and me take care of both issues according to the Word of God.

Answer 3

Well first, all Christians are "born again". That is part of Christianity. Now that we've cleared that up...

The motivation to be moral is that morality is an outgrowth of our relationship with Jesus Christ. If we have that relationship and it is growing, we will be more and more moral because we will become more and more like Jesus Christ.

For anyone else? Being moral makes life easier. It makes living with other people easier. It takes away a lot of stress.

Answer 4

First of all, anyone who comes on as "holier than thou...isn't.
Anyone who thinks they are "better than you" because they "know Christ, and you don't...doesn't.

Christ came to seek and save the lost...once you belong to Him and He enters into your heart (i.e. "seat of emotions, not the organ that pumps your blood), you will find that, as He makes Himself at home, He begins to re-arrange the furniture to His taste...that is to say, you will begin to change. That is what being "born again" really means...reborn from the inside.
There is no such thing as a Christian who is not "born again"...but there are a great many frauds and wanna-bees out there.

So how can you tell a true Disciple of Jesus Christ? (hint: disciple comes from the same root word as "discipline").

Just in case you still didn't catch it, Jesus makes it very plain for us: The world will know His disciples BY THEIR LOVE.
Yep.
It's as simple as that.....

Answer 5

Have a look at Romans Chapter 3 which discusses this in some detail.

JB

Answer 6

Well, if believeing is what gets you to heaven i would think that having morals would go along with that. If you believe in, and want to follow in god's teachings you are going to want to be free of sin.

Answer 7

How shall we who have died to sin continue in it? If a man can sin without the Holy Spirit wearing him out, I would seriously doubt that he HAS believed. I sin all I want to. The thing is, I don't want to. Jesus will change your "want to's".

Answer 8

The motivation to be moral or holy comes from a desire to please God (after accepting Him as your Savior) by allowing Him to reflect His goodness in you so that you can be a light in this world of darkness. He is glorified through this Sin will be judged, saved or unsaved, at the time of judgement.

Answer 9

Not Quite Right, you Reap What you Sow.

Hey,if you Don't Believe in GOD---How About John Lawman and the StoneyLonesome!
Ditto..............

Answer 10

what part of 'moral' don't you understand? you do (as we used to say when we were kids) 'good stuff' because they're good-and you don't do 'bad stuff' because they're bad...if you don't know the difference, or the difference only means something to you in terms of punishment, then i doubt any amount of explanation would suffice...the simplest way to put it is, the motivation to BE moral is that it IS moral...