God's Kindness

Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

Romans 2:4

How often do we presume upon God’s goodness? We live our lives as though He is harsh and demanding except when we are sinning. Then we are sure He will understand. This is especially true when we are dealing with addictions and lifestyle issues that are ingrained into us by the enemy and the world through the flesh. Paul tells us in this passage that when we continue knowingly in this type of behavior we are despising the riches of His goodness. The word the apostle uses to describe this presumption is despise.

According to Strongs’s Enhanced Lexicon “despised” means to take lightly or think little of something. This is what we do when we look down on God’s grace in our lives. We take it for granted. We despise it. God has called us to freedom in holiness. He has not called us to personal autonomy. We are not a law to ourselves. Though we are free from the Mosaic law and from the law of sin and death we are still accountable to our Creator-Savior-Lord-Judge. God is the only autonomous being in the universe. He is the only one who will not answer for His behaviors. The rest of us will be judged according to our works. Jesus assures us that He is coming with reward for each one according to their deeds.

Let us take His goodness seriously. Let’s take the opportunity grace affords us. As Paul commands in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6, lets tear down the strongholds in our lives with the powerful weapons Christ has given by taking our every thought captive so that when He comes to punish every disobedience our obedience will be complete. Since we know His judgment will begin in His own house let us be sure to cleanse ourselves of all dishonor so we are fit for honorable use in the great House of our Master.

Following His Goodness To My Repentance,

Pastor Jason