“Command and teach these things. Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.”
As we enter this period of Lent I’d like to be a pain in the nether regions and remind us all of those final words, “Watch your life and your doctrine closely. Persevere in them.” Do this and we and those around us will indeed be saved!
We are living in a time when more and more we are seeing people rewrite doctrine in order to justify their own lifestyles and attitudes. We are seeing ‘learned’ people rewriting what has for centuries been held as true and orthodox belief and Christian practice. Rather than seek to steer their lives by God’s Word they seek to rewrite God’s Word to condone their lifestyles. This might make people feel better but, I am sorry to say, as I understand it they only paper over the cracks and lead others into the pit with them.
Lent is a time for self-examination and a time in which we need to see just how well we measure up to that which God commands us. We must not look to excuse ourselves or minimise our errors but face them head on and challenge them. Do this gently (just as I hope you would if it were someone else in error) but also honestly.
In this way we will fulfil God’s calling for our life and will be a beacon to others (and have a blesséd and productive Lent too.).
1 comment:
Vic,
This is very worrying!
If murderers said to the "pointyheads" "we want murder", would the Church say "very well, murder is fine, carry on"?
If adulterers said the same, would the Church change and make that practise acceptable too?
If this were to continue to the ultimate extreme the Church would be no better than the rest of the World.
The Church has to lead the people into it's beliefs as it has, until recently, done. It has to convert the wrong-doers into the Churches ways and not come down to the ways of the wrong-doers.
Stan.
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