Knowing Good

James 4:17 "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."

Seems pretty direct and easily understood but if we really look at the ramifications of that one simple scripture, it is quite powerful and does not leave a lot of gray area for personal likes and dislikes.  This brings to mind a time my mother was explaining how we will be held accountable for what God meant in His Word and not how we chose to interpret it.  Her example was of her telling us kids to have the house cleaned by the time she returned.  When she returned whether it was in an hour or four hours, we would be judged by what she meant in that simple statement of "clean the house." Our arguments of "well, I thought you meant..." would not hold water and we risked discipline by doing less than what she meant (because we really did know what she meant as she never expected something of us that was not previously explained).  When we stand before God, our excuses of "well, I thought you meant..." or "I didn't know you meant it THAT way" or "I didn't like that particular requirement so...", those excuses will just not hold up before the Holy One, the Righteous One, the one who died for us. We are going to be judge by what he meant and not our interpretation or what we found to be convenient or easy.