New Testament Commands

Recently someone emailed me asking, "Why does the Scriptures point out ‘dos and don'ts’ for members of the body of Christ? Shouldn't being indwelt with the Holy Spirit be enough?"

I thought I’d share my answer because this is the sort of question that can linger in our minds and cause doubt.

The truth is that the Holy Spirit is the only way for us to exhibit godly conduct. Titus 2:11-12 tell us that the Grace of God teaches us to deny unrighteousness and live upright and godly lives in this world. Philippians 2:13 tells us that He is working in us to give us the desire and to energize the doing of godly things.

This does not mean that we are simply passive. We are designed for godly conduct because we are born of God, we are His children, we are godly people (see Ephesians 2:10). So, when the Scriptures tell us how we ought to behave, they help us see the things we were designed to do.

Behaving rightly does not save us. Nor does good behavior earn us greater blessing from Father. However, since we are His kids, it does reflect on Him. We are His ambassadors, and poor behavior makes us ineffective in that role. Bad conduct also slows our growth into maturity because it quenches the Spirit. When we are preoccupied with worldly things or with feelings of guilt and shame over our failures, we have trouble hearing Him.

I wrote an article that provides some additional thoughts here:
https://www.larryeiss.com/blog/202345works-is-not-a-dirty-word