The Faith Of The Christian Is Paramount In Our Relationship With Jesus
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(3) In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, (4) for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. (5) Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.’ (1 John 5:3-5)
The Faith of the Christian is paramount to our relationship with Jesus. If we cannot have Faith, we cannot trust. Without trust, then our worship will always be arms-length from the Lord’s, and when the untrusting person sees the ‘bright shiny object’ that seems to be a better way or having a better result, that person will drop their Bible and go chase that glimmer, even if that glimmer is simply a mirage. For many, that glimmer is the Secular Worldview; for others it is modern science, after all we can’t deny science always right, can we? – or so we are told.
This first Johannine epistle (or for the majority of us to can’t speak academic jargon, John’s first letter to Christians) mainly discusses that all Christians are loved by God for their belief and allegiance to Jesus, and that Christians should carry that love and faith everywhere and every time. We should not follow or fall into the Secular Worldview but stay the course with God’s commands, Jesus’ Gospel, and Biblical truth (it’s all one in the same). The point of the opening dialogue is that it is often tiresome when we hear repeatedly – daily, hourly, minute by minute – of what we should think and accept. Even in the church, the pressure to conform to society’s whims are great.
But John (and Peter and Paul in their letters) states correctly that we should feel greater pressure to stay in conformance with God. God made His way easy to understand, comprehend, and to follow, with the reward for doing so defined and spelled out. Compare this to the Secular Worldview that provides we need to believe bold, in-your-face lies. Transgenderism, LGBTQ normalcy, adaptations to past history based on present whims, white supremacy, systemic racism are all lies of the secularist.
Obviously one can point out, ‘well, there’s one example of ‘(X)’, so it must permeate all of society as a main tenant’. A one-off does not make it a societal tenant. However, when a majority of society has the perception that their view is reality, then perception equals reality and it becomes a ‘fact’ even though it can be seen as obviously fraudulent. When churches take their eye off Jesus, they begin to sink into the waters of secularism and this false doctrine of worldly love. Let’s pray the Southern Baptist Convention does not take their eyes off the Truth of the Gospel.
God is not perception, but Truth. He is real and He dictates what is reality. The Christian who keeps God’s commands and follows Jesus will see the Truth and will overcome the influences of society. Remember your God math: God + you (or us) = Infinite Majority. Even if 330 million Americans and all but one church went secular, the one church (hopefully MBC) that stands with God and repudiates the lies of the Secular Worldview is in the Winning Majority as God is with them – and prayerfully them is us. God always keeps his promises, thus assuring us His Worldview will overcome. Don’t let society drag you down to its level, keep up at God’s level and with the Great Commission pull as many people up to join you and our Lord.
