Taken from Acts 23:1, “My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day."
As we go through life, what is our standard for success. All to often we tend to adopt the standards of society around us or the standards of those we respect and want to be like, or the standards of those we want to like us. Unfortunately these are the wrong standards to judge success by.
This verse shows is what the right standard is. Paul reminds us that the right standard is always and only God’s standard. We cannot water it down or change it. As we look at this verse we see that there are two parts to God standard and we must consistently do both.
The first part is found in our duty to God. What is it that God requires of us and are we doing it completely. There are two things that come to mind here. First is our relationship. How is your relationship with God today? A indication of the health of our relationship with God is seen in the overflow from this relationship as we relate to others. As we interact with other are our actions saturated with love, patience and grace? Do we see the Fruit of the Spirit growing every day in those relationship. Take time to read Galatians 5:22-23 so you can evaluate if this is growing in all your relationships. This is also explained in Micah 6:8 where God states what He requires of us … to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. Part of all of this is sharing our relationship with God with everyone we meet. Remember we are to be witnesses.
Now the second part is equally important. We must not fulfill our duty but we must do it with the right attitude. This attitude is not one of obligation but of love. Is our heart motive behind obeying God correct? Why do we do the things that we do? The why is what makes the difference between religious activity and loving obedience (relationship). Not notice here in this verse there is a little word that has huge impact. It’s the word all. It says, “in all good conscience to this day.” This means that our motives must be consistent and not at certain times or in spurts. It means that it must be our always, not just when others are watching us. It means that this must be our lifestyle. So what is your standard and how are do doing at living it out?
