Why be moral?

How many times are Christians exhorted to purity of thought and deed with some of those same old arguments:

You MUST be pure. (Duty)
It is WRONG to be impure. (Law)
There is a PENALTY for impurity. (Hell)

So... these arguments: were they sufficient for you? Did they keep you from sin? Were they enough for Old Testament Israel?

If your answer is "no", have you ever wondered why not?

Academically, these statements are all completely true. We DO have a moral obligation to purity. God is Holy, and we must therefore be holy. The impure DOES face a penalty for sin, namely Hell. It's a penalty far more real and harsh than anyone can really appreciate.

Problem is, this identifies the obligation, and the problem, but these statements don't have "life" in them. They do not provide the strength to obey.

If the Chrisitian life is summed up by the Great Commandment (Love), then we should look to align our motives with the Fruit of the Spirit. (The Law kills, but the Spirit gives life.)

We can see a remedy for this in Psalm 73.

It opens with the speaker envying the wicked.

(He envied the wealth of the wicked. Others may envy Position, Power, Praise, Posessions, Lifestyle, Recreation, Health, Appearance, or any of a thousand ways the World measures greatness.)

Up until verse 14, he is cataloging all the reasons the life of the wicked guy is better than his, and is tempted to believe that he has been wasting his time by seeking God, and remaining pure.

It took viewing it through the lens of faith to get proper context.

He weighed the sum of what the other guy had, without entering God into the equation. If you have everything this world has to offer, but die without knowing God, you have truly had nothing. You are 'without God and without hope in this world'.

Here is the realization he comes to:

21 Thus my heart was grieved,
And I was vexed in my mind.
22 I was so foolish and ignorant;
I was like a beast before You.
23 Nevertheless I am continually with You;
You hold me by my right hand.
24 You will guide me with Your counsel,
And afterward receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but You?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
26 My flesh and my heart fail;
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

If you envy them, you believe they have are "haves" and you are a "have not". You have determined that their estate as the lost [with benefit 'x'] is preferable to your estate of Redeemed [without benefit 'x']. Looking more closely, you will have decided that benefit 'x' is to be preferred above God.

If we will be honest with ourselves, if and when you or I find ourselves envying the wicked, we will have identified the problem:

We have lost sight of the true riches of Christ. How can I conclude that? Easily! There is nobody and nothing in all of creation as praise-worthy, true, pure, good, perfect, as the God who made it.

If we truly and fully believed that, we would gladly suffer any inconvenience or risk to please Him. He would be that treasure in the field that we (motivated by joy) sell everything to get. We would suffer imprisonment gladly rather than sin against His great Name. We could never be swayed by the same things we envy in the world, from the lists (above). Why?

Because we would view anyone who was without God as the Poorest and most destitute of all people anywhere. More urgent than mere famine (which kills the body) this variety of famine kills the soul with it, damning it eternally.

On the other side of the coin, having God as our true treasure would generate, as a spillover effect, a love of righteousness, and a concern for the lost.

Thus, we have a love of God that provides that love of righteousness that the Law demands.