Perhaps we need to go to the words of Jesus in John 8:31-32: “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” We hear very much about “freedom” in our day, but much of it is not freedom, but rather rebellion against God appointed authority! We are not free to do whatever we please, because we are not “lone rangers” in the world, for there are others with whom we must cooperate. The whole purpose of creating laws is that each person will have protection against the lawlessness of others. Man cannot live without laws, at least not in any good sense, so why do some suppose that God should “keep His ideas to Himself”, so to speak. Oh, most people would be afraid to say anything like this, but many act as it this is what they are thinking. My reason for saying this is that most people seem to care very little about what God desires, or even demands!
The verses I gave above are vitally important, if one seeks a right relationship and a right fellowship with God. Jesus said that the way one becomes His true disciple is by continuing in His Word. But how can one continue in the words of Jesus, unless he knows the words of Jesus? This would be like a man trying to practice law, when he had never read the laws men have passed. Such a “lawyer” would not be allowed to present his case in the courtroom. Preachers sometimes amaze me by their lack of study of the Bible, when their occupation is to make the message of the Bible known to others. On the other hand, parents who want their children to “turn out good” often do very little is “shaping the mold” that will turn out good children! When Jesus spoke, in our verses above, of continuing in His Word, He said something that many people seem to forget, for if we do not study the Bible on a regular basis, we are not likely to remember much of what it says, much less to practice what it teaches.
Jesus spoke of continuing in His Word, and that is a “must”, if one is to become strong in the Christian faith. Every teacher I had in school and in college was someone who made a practice of study in the materials they were going to teach. The same is true with parents who want their children to “turn out right”, for they must “fit them into the right molds”. In fact, children never “turn out right”, for they have to be “turned out right” by parents and teachers. Yes, some children do come to do basically what is right in life, even when their parents have not taught them properly, but the ideal thing is for parents to “train their children” in what is right and helpful for them. I mentioned in another article that we do not allow our children to decide about public education, so why should we suppose that they will learn about God and His Word without a teacher? Moreover, the parents are the first, and usually the best, teachers of their children, at least in matters of “right and wrong”.
In our verses above, Jesus also said that one can know the truth, and thus be set free by it. Learning what is true and what is false is sometimes a good sized project, but it can be done. I remember that some of the hardest questions on college exams were the “true or false questions”, for some of them would be so close to the truth that it was hard to detect the error. I just said something that might be worth hanging onto, for in the religious world we have the same kind of thing, with some religious beliefs being so close to the truth that it is hard to detect the error in it. None of us knows everything about the Bible, but it is “a given”, as the geometry book might say, that the basic things we need to know about God and man’s responsibility to God are not too hard to see in the Bible! One man said, “It is not the part of the Bible that I do not understand that troubles me; it is the part that I do understand.” Perhaps all of us know much more truth than we practice, at least on a regular basis! My aim is not to make my readers feel bad about themselves, but rather to challenge all of us to be more concerned about the things that are most important. With life being uncertain, and death being sure, unless we who are believers are here when Jesus comes, it behooves us to make sure that the most important things are learned, heeded and practices in the presence of others.
By J. Briggs King, Rainsville, AL (678) 451-0921