Belief to Behavior

What we believe to be true about life forms the foundation for how we live life. Our beliefs speak into the words we use with others. They determine how we approach daily decisions. Everything from the min(oo)t decisions to the deeper life changing decisions.

Our beliefs about what is true in all of life affects how we take in the news, how we gather information, messages from other people…and then how we integrate those things into our lives.

Ultimately, what we believe to be true about life determines how we view God, live within His world, and how we operate daily with the Gospel of Jesus.

What we believe leads to how we live each and every day.

Here we are in 2023! There’s been a lot of change hasn’t there?

Even in the last 2-5 years things have changed…life has changed.

What’s right and or what’s wrong.

What is love or what is hate.

What’s true (objectively true) and what’s not.

Who God is and who He’s not.

We talked about change last week. That some change is good and other change is not. Paul wrote in Romans 12:2

Romans 12:2 CSB

2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

There are two ways to live. The way of the world. Or the way of God.

How, how do we do this? This is hard.

Let’s go back to this statement. What we believe to be true, what we believe, determines how we live.

As disciples of Jesus, we know that often what the Bible teaches, what God teaches us through His Word, will often be pushed aside as either irrelevant or hateful.

So how do we live? It’s hard knowing that what we believe is not shared by a majority of the people on the planet. Knowing that there’s often push-back and false claims made against believers in God. How do we live, knowing that we will go through trouble and hardship if we hold true to God’s will?

What we believe leads to how we live life.

Plato, a philosopher who lived in the 5th century BC, wrote a book titled The Republic. In this book he questioned thought about life…how people should best live in relationship to each other…and he contemplated eternity as well.

He was looking at life.

In this book he quotes his teacher Socrates as saying this, “We are discussing no small matter, but how we ought to live.”

How we live is no small matter. It is very important.

How we live is important…why we live that way may be even more important to think about.

Paul said not to conform to this world but to be transformed by God.

The world changes all the time.

However, the one Paul directs us to never changes

The author of Hebrews writes this Hebrews 13:8

Hebrews 13:8 CSB

8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Jesus never changes. God never changes. Truth never changes.

But in today’s world, what is true about life…morality…ethics…right ways of living…always seems to change.

Either God and His ways stand forever or they don’t and He doesn’t. There can’t be an in between here.

So conform to the ways of the world…or be transformed by God and His truth.

That’s our daily choice.

Ok....this is tough isn’t it? This is the challenge. And it is no small challenge. An in this world we see how people are treated. We see the culture making wrong decisions…how do we speak into that. Sometimes is the Christian world speaking into the world in very incorrect and unprofitable ways.

How do we do this?

In a book I’m reading, the true and very recent story is told of a professor who had given an assignment to his college level class. They are to watch a pornographic video and then write a discussion paper about it.

One person in the class, Jana, a Christian…a believer in Christ, knows that this will not be good for her to see. She needs this class and simply not doing the assignment would be very hurtful to her grade. She wants to keep a sense of purity…but she’s also wants to do well in the class.

Jaelene is a professional woman’s soccer player. The US National team was slated to wear gay pride jerseys for a specific game. Jaelene is a Christian who believes in God’s design for sex and marriage. Some might say it’s only a jersey…but for her, she was caught in a dilemma. The chance to play on this team was very important to her…she loved her teammates and enjoyed her time with them.

These two ladies …can you image the pressure they were under. They wanted to do well and succeed. Both worked hard at what they were doing and what they were achieving. They also wanted to stay true to their convictions. Can they do both?

One author stated it this way. And this is a hard question! Can it be expected that in doing the right thing, sometimes you might suffer? Doesn’t God want people to be happy?

Remember what Socrates wrote…what he found in life...”We are discussing no small matter, but how we ought to live.”

This is no small matter. It is a challenge.

For us, we face ethical and moral decisions every day. Should I respond to a post on social media? Should I watch this or that? Should I say something when certain subjects come up? Should I talk like others want me to even though I know that what I’m saying can’t be true? Do I join protests with groups and movements for and against things within life and politics…some of which I know conflict with how God calls me to live?

These are hard questions. There are times when we respond that we suffer. There are times when we don’t, and we’re expected to, and then we suffer as well. We’re wrong if we do…and we’re wrong if we don’t.

To be honest and blunt, in today’s world, to live as a Christian, as the scholar John Lennox says, is “to be more and more of a threat to social stability and human freedom.”

There’s a historical figure from our Old Testament that we place in a similar spot. His name was Daniel.

Daniel was a young man, maybe even a young teen, when Babylon, led by King Nebuchadnezzar, came and sacked Jerusalem. The king wanted to have a number of young men, strong, good looking, smart and intelligent young men who lived in or alongside the royalty of Judah, to come and be taught to be his advisors and wise men.

That’s where we start the story here in the book of Daniel.

Let’s read Daniel 1 together. And I think you’ll see where this is going.

Remember, we’re focusing on how what believe is true affects how we live.

Daniel 1:1–21 CSB

1 In the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it. 2 The Lord handed King Jehoiakim of Judah over to him, along with some of the vessels from the house of God. Nebuchadnezzar carried them to the land of Babylon, to the house of his god, and put the vessels in the treasury of his god. 3 The king ordered Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the Israelites from the royal family and from the nobility— 4 young men without any physical defect, good-looking, suitable for instruction in all wisdom, knowledgeable, perceptive, and capable of serving in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the Chaldean language and literature. 5 The king assigned them daily provisions from the royal food and from the wine that he drank. They were to be trained for three years, and at the end of that time they were to attend the king. 6 Among them, from the Judahites, were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. 7 The chief eunuch gave them names; he gave the name Belteshazzar to Daniel, Shadrach to Hananiah, Meshach to Mishael, and Abednego to Azariah. 8 Daniel determined that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or with the wine he drank. So he asked permission from the chief eunuch not to defile himself. 9 God had granted Daniel kindness and compassion from the chief eunuch, 10 yet he said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and drink. What if he sees your faces looking thinner than the other young men your age? You would endanger my life with the king.” 11 So Daniel said to the guard whom the chief eunuch had assigned to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, 12 “Please test your servants for ten days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 Then examine our appearance and the appearance of the young men who are eating the king’s food, and deal with your servants based on what you see.” 14 He agreed with them about this and tested them for ten days. 15 At the end of ten days they looked better and healthier than all the young men who were eating the king’s food. 16 So the guard continued to remove their food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables. 17 God gave these four young men knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom. Daniel also understood visions and dreams of every kind. 18 At the end of the time that the king had said to present them, the chief eunuch presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. 19 The king interviewed them, and among all of them, no one was found equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they began to attend the king. 20 In every matter of wisdom and understanding that the king consulted them about, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and mediums in his entire kingdom. 21 Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.

In 605BC, we have Daniel being carted off to a foreign land to be a servant of a foreign king. Jerusalem, his home, is now owned and controlled by Babylon. He’s being led away from everything he knows. He is be pulled from his family, his friends, his way of life.

Do you think Daniel might have wondered…this is God’s special nation! We’re God’s people!

But Daniel writes something that gives us a clue about what he believed to be true.

Remember what we’re looking at today…and this is what we’re looking at for the time being.

Belief to behavior. What did Daniel believe to be true.

Daniel gives us a hint in v.2 Daniel 1:2

Daniel 1:2 (CSB)

2 The Lord handed King Jehoiakim of Judah over to him, along with some of the vessels from the house of God.

The first thing Daniel writes is that God is involved in human history. And Daniel just doesn’t tell us what happened…but why. God is involved…this was God’s decision.

Wow, this really doesn’t match well with our world today…that God is involved in human history…everything that is happening around the world…God’s involved. That’s a truth that we either believe in or we don’t.

Daniel believed God was in control of all of this. No it wasn’t pleasant at all. In fact for him it was probably painful. But Daniel knew the old stories of God.

God was the creator. God created humanity in His image.

The world, created by God, is a moral world. The universe must be a moral universe.

He knew the prophesies that God had given Israel…that Jerusalem would be taken if His people didn’t come around and stop worshiping other (g)ods and disobeying the one true God. And it was happening....and he believed it to be true.

What was happening, made sense in God’s moral world…in the truth the God exists.

And even painful…he stayed true to God. God was in control.

Belief to behavior. Even when challenged…even when suffering.

John Lennox writes this about Daniel, “…in the end Daniel and his friends came to understand that God is interested not only in global history but also in the personal history of those who are often innocently caught up in its tragic aftermath.”

Immediately we see an ethical and even moral decision to be made. A challenge.

He is to eat foods that were not allowed.

What does he not do? Well, today, it is popular and even “right” to yell, quit, protest…even violence at times seems right. Daniel doesn’t raise a fist to his new earthly ruler.

Here’s what we read. Daniel 1:8

Daniel 1:8 (CSB)

8 Daniel determined (resolved) that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or with the wine he drank. So he asked permission from the chief eunuch not to defile himself.

Resolved to …even before thinking about outcomes. It didn’t matter what the outcome would be. He resolved, was determined to obey God....no matter what might happen.

In fact he respects his overseer, Ashpenaz. He asks. He even, in a way, gives Ashpenaz (who is fearful of the King), an out.

Daniel is respectful. Asks Ashpenaz to look for evidence based outcomes …when it came to the 4 young men’s obedience to God.

In the end…what happens? These four young men were blessed. Yes, in the presence of a tyrant king…not only presence but in the service of…a tyrant king.

Belief…God’s put them there for a reason. They don’t protest…they follow God.

Belief to behavior. The knew, evidence based belief, that God is real…is the creator, designer of life. That humanity is caught in a self-inflicted world of sin. We need to obey God…because God is on our side and wants us close. God is working through human history to bring humanity back to himself. This is what they knew to be true. So their belief spoke directly to their behavior…no matter the earthly outcome.

Jana, the college student. Jana prayed. She decided to simply go to the professor and let him know of her dilemma…and discuss alternate ways to do the assignment. He reluctantly said she could write a paper about why she felt it was wrong to view pornography. In the end, her presentation became one that the professor would use as well thought through argument. In fact, other students, who didn’t want to watch what he wanted them to watch, were able to choose that option as well.

Jaelene was just recently let go from the North Carolina Courage women’s soccer team. Most people figure that it was because that she chose, on that one day, to go, respectuflly to her coach and request to not wear the jersey or play. She went to her team and explained her reluctance to participate. She also relayed to them that she loved them…they were like family to her. She would play beyond that game a few years ago.

I believe that this past November her contract was not renewed for the 2023 year. Now, she could say…”That’s not right!” Protest and write mean things on social media. She hasn’t, as far as I know. She believes that God is in control of human events in history…and that she is still under His watch care.

Does it maybe stink to not play? Yes…there’s a bit of suffering…especially when she was boo’d and jeered at in games after people knew that she was a Christian. But she has peace in following God.

Jesus said, In this world you will have trouble....

He said that to His followers. Trouble…while still following Him…trusting Him…being led by Him.

The author of Hebrews writes this....

Hebrews 11:6 CSB

6 Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Two ways to read this....