Why are Christians held to a higher standard?

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than the rest of the world? It can be intimidating. Especially, when I hear about venial sins. It can get frustrating like a no-win situation. People outside the church are free to live however they please, God may forgive them of their sins and they will inherit heaven. Maybe God is not as scary as I imagine. Why does God call someone suffer and carry the cross of Christ earlier than others? Some people do very little and still go to heaven. Some people dedicate their entire lives to God.
 
( I was about to say “because we know better.” )

😉

It’s not always definable, though. I just reduced my hours and obligations at a faith based charity because of all the unChristian like behaviors.
I expect this on some level at almost every business.
And yet I am surprised it’s happening at a Christian foundation.
I guess there are no exceptions.
 
Bradski said:
It’s self imposed.
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No, it’s absolutely NOT! Don’t you dare say things like this when you don’t understand what it means to be Catholic and a follower of Christ Jesus.

In regard to the OP: we, as Catholics, are held to a higher standard because that is what God wants of all the human race. We understand this and do what He asks. People outside the Church unfortunately do not understand this and live in sin, doing as they please and offending God. If they do this, know about Christ and His Church, and die unrepentant, then they will suffer the consequence of rejecting God: eternal separation from Him in Hell.

God calls all of us to be great saints and to fill the place that He has prepared for us in Heaven. To do this, we have to follow His precepts, be in His Catholic Church, follow His Holy Will for us, remain in a state of grace, pray often, receieve the Sacraments, worship God alone, Who is in Heaven, and love Him, God, above all things and our neighbors as ourselves. The reward will be great in Heaven. Amen.

May God bless you and lead you to the Truths of Catholicism (hopefully you are already a member of the Catbolic Church)! 🙂
 
Sticking to the Truth means rising above all of the nonsense about the world. Because while the world operates fundamentally on Truth, it often scorns and abhors it. ⭕(
 
CRATUS said:
Some people do very little and still go to heaven.
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I don’t believe that’s a safe assumption. We know only about the saints, and there might be some who did “very little,” but I can think of none.
Some people dedicate their entire lives to God.
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There is no greater goal than to devote our entire lives to God. We all should, but most of us fail, (including me).
We are held to a higher standard because God calls us to a higher life than the world does. The standards of the world are arbitrary, imposed by anyone that wants to impose them. Those of this world like to belittle, attack, or persecute Christians, then demand that we simply accept any injustice they throw at us by quoting “turn the other cheek,” or some other verse taken out of context. In the case of persecution by other religions, they quote from their own “sacred” books. This is the way of the world, but we are not “*of *the world;” we’re just in it.
 
The yolk of Christ is easy, his burden is light.
Living in sin is it’s own hell.
 
Bradski said:
It’s self imposed.
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Richard_White said:
No, it’s absolutely NOT!
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Neither of you stop to ask the necessary question: Who is holding Christians to a higher standard? Is it the individual Christian? Is it society at large? Is is specific members of society? Is it the Church?

We need to know which of these questions the OP is asking before we can give a well-rounded answer. The answer to one question could be theological, to another sociological, to another ecclesiological, and to another anthropological.

And so, I ask the OP to answer this necessary question.
 
L_Marshall said:
Neither of you stop to ask the necessary question: Who is holding Christians to a higher standard? Is it the individual Christian? Is it society at large? Is is specific members of society? Is it the Church?
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I think that you’d have to assume that being a Christian meant in itself that you were expected to attain a higher standard than those who are not Christian. So that to become a good Christian, you impose those standards on yourself and try to hold yourself to them.

Having declared that you hold yourself to them, society then expects you to do so. So if you declare abortion to be wrong, society expects that you do not have an abortion. If you declare contraception to be wrong, then society expects you not to use it. And so on…
 
Bradski said:
I think that you’d have to assume that being a Christian meant in itself that you were expected to attain a higher standard than those who are not Christian. So that to become a good Christian, you impose those standards on yourself and try to hold yourself to them.

Having declared that you hold yourself to them, society then expects you to do so. So if you declare abortion to be wrong, society expects that you do not have an abortion. If you declare contraception to be wrong, then society expects you not to use it. And so on…
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Being a Christian is not about being better than a non-Christian. It’s about following Christ’s example of how to live. He set the standard and if we want to follow him He’s the model we strive to emulate.
 
seagal said:
Being a Christian is not about being better than a non-Christian. It’s about following Christ’s example of how to live. He set the standard and if we want to follow him He’s the model we strive to emulate.
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Does following Christ’s example make you a better person than not following it?
 
Bradski said:
Does following Christ’s example make you a better person than not following it?
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I don’t measure myself against other people. If you’re asking if it’s possible to be a good person without being a Christian, of course it is.
 
seagal said:
I don’t measure myself against other people. If you’re asking if it’s possible to be a good person without being a Christian, of course it is.
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I didn’t ask if you felt yourself better than other people. I asked if you felt that following Jesus made you a better person than if you had not followed Him. There’s no need to compare yourself to anyone else. Does it make you better?

On the assumption that it does (you’d hardly follow someone who made you a worse person), then, as I said earlier…

‘…to become a good Christian, you impose those standards on yourself and try to hold yourself to them.’
 
Bradski said:
I didn’t ask if you felt yourself better than other people. I asked if you felt that following Jesus made you a better person than if you had not followed Him. There’s no need to compare yourself to anyone else. Does it make you better?
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I can answer that. I came into the church in my 20’s, and the practice of going to confession means that a Catholic has to do an examination of conscience. Not something I did before, if anything I was better at pointing fingers at other people’s poor examples but something about going to confession makes one look in the mirror. It’s easier to forgive others when you start to see your own faults and experience how difficult it is to overcome them. Of course God’s grace is there because He is interested in helping us to be more loving and forgiving. I came from a non-Christian family and they did not practice loving and forgiving very well. Bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness was nurtured like a delicate flower. Coming to Christ meant that I don’t have to live that anymore. What a wonderful relief to take that off my shoulders. Do I still get mad at people who are mean to me? Yes. But there’s a certain ugliness in my heart that just isn’t there anymore.
 
“Higher standard” simply is no different than saying “purely human”.

Christianity is the only real form of humanism that is.

The only reason why its referred relatively speaking as a “higher standard” is because in our current world sinfulness mired in mediocrity is what is considered “normal”.

And it is a common tactic by the mediocre to bring others down to their level, or ridicule them for trying to be more than they are when they fall, than suffer anyone who actually proves that to be attached to such sinful mediocrity is to actually be less than what they are mms rant to be. That they truly are selling themselves short.
 
PennyinCanada said:
But there’s a certain ugliness in my heart that just isn’t there anymore.
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When I said ‘That’s nice to know’ above, it referred to what you said, Penny. Someone slipped a post in just before mine, so it looked like I was responding to his.
 
PennyinCanada said:
I can answer that. I came into the church in my 20’s, and the practice of going to confession means that a Catholic has to do an examination of conscience. Not something I did before, if anything I was better at pointing fingers at other people’s poor examples but something about going to confession makes one look in the mirror. It’s easier to forgive others when you start to see your own faults and experience how difficult it is to overcome them. Of course God’s grace is there because He is interested in helping us to be more loving and forgiving. I came from a non-Christian family and they did not practice loving and forgiving very well. Bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness was nurtured like a delicate flower. Coming to Christ meant that I don’t have to live that anymore. What a wonderful relief to take that off my shoulders. Do I still get mad at people who are mean to me? Yes. But there’s a certain ugliness in my heart that just isn’t there anymore.
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👍 Hating anyone is self-destructive.
 
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