Standing firm against the world and tradition.
For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men —the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.”
Funny how things work like this. I was reading to my lovely wife in bed the other night, something we'll do for each other from time to time, and the book I chose to read from was an all time favorite of mine titled, "Practical Christianity". The book is written by William Wilberforce whose life story was so brilliantly told a few years back in the movie 'Amazing Grace'. Something that I read there struck me, as it always does when I read this book. In spite of the fact that this book was written in the mid 1800's its content is still true today. The next night, I reached for a different book for my nightly reading, and the same theme is brought up again, this time by another author in a book that was just published in 2009. Funny as in God is orchestrating this in His sovereignty so I need to be paying attention.
The theme has to do with compromise. It's about allowing ourselves to get to the point spiritually where we begin to allow ourselves to slip in our convictions, allowing more and more of the world into our lives; he whole boiling of a frog issue again. Turn the heat up slowly and the frog will never jump out. He'll feel like he's in a hot-tub and the next thing you know he's cooked. The problems with compromise are that it is almost always done with our knowledge, and yet we allow it just the same.
Today I applaud the leaders of the new North American Lutheran Church who, acting as righteous dissenters, left the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America who last August voted at the national assembly to formally allow pastors in committed same-sex relationships to lead their congregations. At some point one has to say enough is enough, and choose the unchanging dogmatic absolute truths of God as given to us in scripture. Several hundred congregations of the ELCA have been functioning as rogues refusing to submit to church authority, as they should in such a case where church or secular law comes into conflict with God's law. Now, they will have their own denomination submitted to the Lord's authority on this issue.
But consider this: for this event within the ELCA to take place, someone had to stand firm on God's word, and stop the compromise. And compromise is exactly what it was.
William Wilberforce wrote: "Their standard of right and wrong is not the standard of the Gospel: they approve and condemn by a different rule: they advance principles and maintain opinions altogether opposite to the genius and character of Christianity." This is compromise. As we begin to give a little, the enemy takes a lot. In an explanation as to how we allow ourselves to get to that point, author Graham Scroggie said of compromise, "It causes us to be silent when we out to speak, out of fear of offending. It prompts us to praise when it is not deserved to keep people our friends. It prompts us to tolerate sin and not to speak out because to do so might give us enemies".
Let me be perfectly clear. The gospel is an offense to some people. Yet to those people whom are offended by it, they need salvation as much as the ones who are not offended but are still not believers. Galatians 5:11 states, "And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased." Paul is himself aware that there are people who will be offended by the truth because it goes against their traditions. In regards to people's faith, the truth often times goes against the traditions that people have known all their life. Truth often times finds itself in opposition to what we 'know' or have been taught. What we sometimes do not consider is this: We do not like to compromise, but the truth CANNOT compromise.
What does this mean? In the end we can 'think' or 'feel' whatever we like, and sincerely believe that we are right, and yet be just as sincerely wrong. We HAVE to give, because the truth is always right, the truth in uncompromising, and the truth is unchanging. And Jesus IS the truth. So to choose our ways, our traditions over the truth of the scriptures because it makes us 'feel uncomfortable', or because we are somehow 'offended', we are looking Jesus in the eye and saying one of two things:
- I'm offended by the cross, and I'm walking away.
- I'm offended by myself, and walk towards Him.
"Bountiful as is the hand of Providence, its gifts are not so bestowed as to seduce us into indolence; but to rouse us to exertion; and no one expects to attain to the height of learning, or arts, or power, or wealth, or military glory, without vigorous resolution, and strenuous diligence, and steady perseverance. Yet we expect to be Christians without labour, study, or inquiry… The diligent perusal of the Holy Scriptures would discover to us our past ignorance. We should cease to be deceived by superficial appearances, and to confound the Gospel of Christ with the systems of philosophers; we should become impressed with the weighty truth, so much forgotten in the present day, that Christianity calls on us, as we value our immortal souls, not merely in general, to be religious and moral but specially to believe the doctrines, imbibe the principles, and practise the precepts of Christ."
[note: By the way, to my critical proofreaders, those are not misspelled words in the quote, it's the King's English!]
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