There are at least three reasons for the feeble moral condition of the believers:

Incorrect doctrine.

A self-serving ministry.

The humanism and lawlessness of our environment.

The Christian churches of today are filled with incorrect doctrine. Some of the errors are as follows:

The interpretation of Paul's teaching of "grace" to mean the Divine salvation consists of the forgiveness of all of the believer's sin, past, present, and future regardless of how the believer behaves. The tragic misunderstanding of the grace of God, making grace a perpetual covering for sinful behavior, is at the root of most of the errors of today. Salvation by grace apart from works is the ancient error of antinomianism, a branch of the historical Gnostic heresy. Antinomianism is prevalent in our day in our preaching and teaching.

The doctrine that salvation is unconditional, meaning once an individual makes a profession of Christ he never can be lost to the purposes of God whether or not he obeys the Lord's commandments.

The view of Divine grace as an alternative to righteous behavior rather than what it is—the means of enabling us to practice righteous behavior. Divine grace is an alternative to the Law of Moses, not to godly behavior!

The emphasis on the goodness and love of God to the exclusion of the severity of God.

The view of the Judgment Seat of Christ as a kind of sports award banquet in which all participants receive some kind of award but no believer is punished.

The concept that Heaven, the spirit Paradise, is the eternal home of the saved and that the purpose of the Divine salvation is to bring us to Heaven to live forever in a mansion.

The division of the one Body of Christ into a Gentile church that will remain in Heaven and a Jewish kingdom that will govern the earth.

The view that the Lord will "rapture" Christians to Heaven so they will not suffer during the great tribulation or at the hands of Antichrist.

The endless emphasis on the catching up of the believers with practically no mention of the resurrection.

The current teaching that the commandments of the Lord Jesus found in the four Gospel accounts do not apply to Christians.

The current teaching that the Book of Hebrews does not apply to Christians but to unsaved Jews (the blindness exhibited here is incredible!; may God save us all!).

The teaching that God is finished with the physical land and people of Israel and the Christian Church is now the only Israel of the Kingdom of God; that God has no intention of restoring the land and people of Israel.

The understanding of the fourteenth chapter of John to mean the Lord Jesus is building houses for us in Heaven.

The belief that all believers, all who have taken the "four steps of salvation," will receive the same reward.

The doctrine that the overcomer, of Revelation, Chapters Two and Three, is the individual who merely has made a profession of belief in Christ.

To be continued.