The Wrong Measuring Stick

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. —Ephesians 1:3

Our children live in a world where they can have a front-row seat to view sin. And the view is often mesmerizing. Yet most times a Christian young person’s desire to follow what “everyone else” is doing doesn’t stem from a desire to rebel. Rather it comes from using the wrong measuring stick for righteousness: the law.

Prior to his encounter with Christ, the apostle Paul, a zealous religious leader, was fixated on the term “in the law.” Then, he met Jesus. His new fixation became the term “in Christ.” While the laws of God are good, they were no longer his measuring stick. Christ was. Paul had tasted the pleasure of being “in Christ.”

This is the key to overcoming the desire to see the sin of the world. When we taste of Christ in a true sense, we no longer have a hunger for this world because what we have from Him is so much more satisfying.