The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 1301, titled "Bible Questions and Answers."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.

Question

Please give some of the basics for Christian living. For instance, the scriptural viewpoint on dancing, drinking, smoking, and miniskirts, etc.?”

Answer

Let me answer this--and I want to answer this lovingly and yet I want to answer it pointedly. Dancing, drinking, smoking, and miniskirts are not the basics of Christian living. I mean that. They are not the basics of Christian living. Do you know there are some very good Mormons who don’t do any of those things and will spend eternity in hell? That’s right. Now listen to me. There are many people, and I mean good people, Christian people who mean well, who base their entire spiritual life on what they do not do! Did you know that? You know, “we don’t smoke and we don’t chew and we don’t go with girls that do,” you know, "rudy-toot-toot," see. “We’re the boys from the institute,” see... In other words, their entire orientation toward spirituality is what they don’t do.

And you know something? Usually they don’t do a lot of things. Mostly what they ought to do--they don’t do, along with what they ought not to do… They don’t do, they just don’t do. I wish they’d start doing what they ought to do, even if they want to keep on not doing what they ought not to do.

Beloved, I’ll tell you, let me tell you this: if you’re going around and you’ve got your thumb in your mouth and you’ve got your security blanket and you’re tickling your nose with what you don’t do, I’d like to take your blanket away and make you face the issue that your spirituality is not a matter of what you don’t do! You say, “Are you saying it’s right to dance, drink, smoke, and wear a miniskirt?” I didn’t say that. The Bible doesn’t say it’s right or wrong to do those things; the Bible doesn’t talk about those things in that context. But I believe this: I believe that if you walk in the Spirit, the Spirit of God will take care of those kinds of issues. But if you just base your spirituality on whether you do or don’t do those things, then you have set up an artificial standard of your spirituality, you have probably bypassed true spirituality, and you have suckered yourself into thinking you’re securely mature when in fact you’re infantile.

Now, that’s hard stuff, but I believe that. I’m not advocating all these things; listen, I have very strong convictions about what’s right and what’s wrong and I’ll tell you, I don’t do any of those things, including wearing a miniskirt. And I want you to know that as a Scotsman, we have the right to do that. Kilts have been in our family for years. But the reason I don’t do those things has nothing to do with what I think the standards of the Christian life are; it has to do with what I think my testimony must be before other believers.

When you go around and you start evaluating people’s spirituality by what they don’t do, you’re really sitting in the wrong seat, doing the wrong thing, on the wrong basis. People say to me so often, “Do you think it’s a sin to smoke?” Of course it isn’t a sin to smoke! Where would you ever get the idea it’s a sin to smoke? You say, “But we’ve always thought it was a sin…” Listen, the Bible doesn’t say anything about it! If you want to put leaves in your mouth and set them on fire, that’s… You know. I mean, I heard one fellow say one time, “Who likes to lean down and kiss a girl and smell a camel?” You know…

I’m being facetious, but the Bible doesn’t say, “Don’t do that.” I’ll tell you what the Bible does say; it does say, “Don’t gossip… Don’t backbite.” And the Bible does say, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength,” and if you begin on that principle, maybe smoking can take care of itself. But you see what I’m saying is people don’t do all these little things and they kid themselves into thinking that that’s spirituality when all it is, is an inherited traditional legalism. True spirituality isn’t that at all. But I believe, beloved, true spirituality, in its depth and maturity, takes care of those kind of things.

Let me give you a little thought. You know the Bible talks about walking in the Spirit in the New Testament? This is the key to the Christian life. Do you believe the Holy Spirit can guide your life? Do you believe that we need to have a big thing here in Grace Church that says, “We don’t…we don’t…we don’t…we don’t…we don’t…”? All we need to say is this: “We do walk in the Spirit.” You know, in our house, I don’t have a sign in the kitchen that says, “Do not beat your wife. Do not maim the children.” Do you know why? I love my wife, I love my children! That precludes the necessity for the rule.

Listen, when the apostle Paul wrote Romans 13, he said this: “Loving the Lord and loving your neighbor is the fulfillment of all,” what? “The law.” So you see, the artificial standard of spirituality is the list of what we don’t do. True spirituality is walking in the Spirit and letting the Spirit convict us of the things the Spirit wants to convict us of--That’s his business.

Now, I’m talking about gray area things. Of course, we know some things are wrong. Clearly the Bible defines many things that are sinful and wrong. You read them; there are lists of them in the New Testament. But when we get into gray area things…You know, kids always say, “Do you think it’s a sin to dance?” And you know, it’s an interesting thing, I said to this group of kids this week, I said, “You know, before you were a Christian, you used to think you had to go to the dance, kind of dance with the girl, get her in the right mood and then you could go out and neck. Then you became a Christian and you realized you don’t dance; you just go straight out and neck, you see?” Yeah, well, you know, the whole place just broke up. I mean, they knew exactly what I was talking about. I mean, there wasn’t one guy in the building that didn’t understand that.

But you see, there’s the artificial standard of spirituality: we don’t do this. Oh ho, but what we do! See. But that isn’t covered in the list. It’s very obvious to me, people, that for somebody to flop on somebody else and wander around a floor with moody music playing is not conducive to spiritual growth. That’s very apparent. I don’t need a rule on that; the Holy Spirit’s told me that very simply. I understand that very clearly. And I realize too that a person’s clothing and how they dress is usually a revelation of the depth of their spirituality, but don’t let your dress become your standard of spirituality.

You see, Jesus said in John 15, “Hereby is my father glorified that you bear,” what? “Much fruit.” You know what fruit is? Well, you can look about and you find that fruit is good works (Colossians). Fruit is not only good works; fruit is attitudes. And so I’ve divided fruit into two things: action fruit and attitude fruit. You know what attitude fruit is? Galatians 5: “The fruit of the Spirit is,” what? All attitudes: love, joy, faith, and so forth… Goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, self-control. That’s attitude fruit. Now watch. The result of attitude fruit is action fruit. If you do action fruit without attitude fruit, that’s legalism. Did you get that? Because you’re cranking it out in the flesh. If you walk in the Spirit, the Spirit produces the right attitude that’s produces the right behavior.

If you’re just out there subscribing to some code, bypassing the attitude, that’s legalism. Now mark it. The legalists and the truly liberated, godly, Spirit-filled Christian may do the very same things. One does them in response to the Holy Spirit; the other does them to try to buy favor with God. Do you see the difference?

Well, this is an important issue and I don’t think that you’d want to ever get in the place where you evaluate your spirituality by what you don’t do--very, very dangerous.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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