Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)

But God will give glory, honor, and peace to all who do what is good…  For God judges everyone by the same standard. Romans 2:10-11 (GNT)

I was taught never to give anything to someone I would not want for myself.  It was a good standard my elder was teaching me.  However, it was not the best one.  It taught me to give according to my standard – but the best standard to go by is God’s standard.  A standard is defined as something established by authority, custom or general consent as a model or example.

Imagine if the standard someone went by was a horrible example to follow?  What if someone gave you rotten or out-of-date food?  What if someone had gifted wrapped and given to you something that was used, dirty and stained?  Would you not be offended?  Unfortunately I have not made those examples up.  I know people in the church who have given such things or gifts repeatedly and find nothing wrong in doing so.  Why?  They see nothing wrong in given rotten food because they themselves eat rotten food.  They see nothing wrong in given used, dirty and stained things away because they accept and use such things themselves.

So it is not good to use what we accept as a standard of giving.  Our standard can be too low or, to the other extreme, too high and no one is worthy of our gifts.  A good example of that is forgiveness.  We may have a standard so high that the other person is not worthy of our forgiveness.

Today let us go beyond our own standards.  Let God’s standard be the only acceptable standard by which we live and give.  God gives glory, honor and peace based on the same standard for all.  Let us do the same.