A Lesson from a Seafood Restaurant

A couple days ago I wrote a post asking by what we measure ourselves. I came across the following quote on a blog I keep track of:

Letting your customers set your standards is a dangerous game, because the race to the bottom is pretty easy to win. Setting your own standards--and living up to them--is a better way to profit. Not to mention a better way to make your day worth all the effort you put into it.

The original context of this quote was a story about a seafood restaurant. But it got me thinking about the church. I have so often seen many things other than the Scriptures used as the standard by which things are measured.

The world has a completely different set of standards than the Scriptures set forth. The world's standards exalt the individual as "god". The Bible is clear that God is God; we are not.

But the world isn't the only group that set's unbiblical standards. The Church is good at it too. Many of us are modern day Pharisees, setting up additional rules to keep so as not to risk breaking the ones that lead to death. Then, sadly, we communicate that breaking our rules lead to death as well.

Using standards other than the Bible may be effective in gathering a crowd. After all, we love to hear people agree with us and tell us we are right. But when it comes to building the Kingdom of God, we lose every time.

So what are the Bible's standards? Let's start with the obvious...

• Love God with all of you.
• Love your neighbor as yourself.
• Go, make disciples, baptizing, and teaching to obey.

When we're done pulling these planks out of our eyes, we'll be prepared to lovingly treat the splinter in our brother's.