You hear all this, and yet there's something nagging at you concerning believers who sin, isn't there? You may agree that there are problems with a life based on biblical principles, but aren't we supposed to deal with those who go against the principles? This is indeed a delicate situation, but not for the reasons you have heard. If you were to examine the question it would scream out the obvious: What causes a believer to get caught up in breaking laws anyway?

I'm talking to you who have God's Spirit, don't you realize that your brother has forgotten who he is? Be careful with your approach, for you are the one who is in danger. For when you view him as a sinner who needs your advice, you have let go of freedom and have embraced the law-based system in the exact place where God's grace is most effective, and most needed!

Forget the advice, what the guy needs is for you to lift this weight of bondage off him through the power of the message of freedom. This is where we really love one another! But those who are trying to impress the so-called less spiritual by coming across as more spiritual have fooled themselves into believing their performance ranks them above those they minister to. But if you were to examine your work without the comparison game you would discover your real worth; for it would be readily obvious that there is no place to boast except in Christ alone! Support those who teach this freedom.

What? Do you think the manipulative mindset of “If I don't do it, it won't get done!” can bypass God's decree that things produce after their own kind? It makes no difference how supposedly spiritual your attempts may be, a system of performance can only produce the seeds that produce corruption! The seed of the Spirit of God can only produce the life of God! So don't let appearances cause you to lose heart in doing that which is truly good, for the tendency to do the right thing always desires to keep you from being the living thing!

Abraham knew the discouragement that comes from seeing nothing happening; he would tell you to wait for God's results because it will come about. Don't let the impatience of your old performance mentality pressure you into trying to finish what God started. Know this: the Spirit of God is actively working in you right at this moment, as He always does.

As you discover desires of goodness (especially to a fellow believer), refuse to justify it in your mind by trying to determine what Jesus would do. You know the process. But doesn't the uncertainty of the whole thing tell you that that's the old, dead mind trying to reinterpret the desires of your new life? What else can you call it when you are asking God to give you proof of His working in you, when the reality of His life being your life has been stated as fact by the message of freedom? Stop questioning the freedom, act according to the life that is in you!

Pay close attention to what those in the system use to make themselves appear respectable, for this is what they really preach! They will urge you to conform to their program, because without it, they would be faced with the fact that their so-called Savior was despised, rejected and condemned by the same system they are part of! Aren't you aware that those who want to pull you into it are not even true to their own programs? They really only want you to join their club so they can bestow their label on you and glory in gaining one more member!

Think whatever you want to about me, but I know for myself that God has faithfully and consistently - and sometimes, painfully, I might add - removed anything by which I could boast except the very thing the world despises, which is the instrument upon which Christ was rejected by the system. It is this very thing that separates me from the world - and the world from me. The issues you hold mean nothing, nor do the lack of them mean anything, either. The only thing that counts is the new creation. God's peace is on those who are found in this.