True unity for believers in Jesus Christ comes through our oneness, and that oneness comes through an uncompromising belief in Jesus being the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus only....Only Jesus. In a nation of political correctness we see the daunting effort it takes just to keep the faith at all. If we narrow down the options of who God is and who is the savior, the world muddies those defined lines to keep it all palatable. What is palatable for the world we live in? All truth is relative to how I feel about it. That is what the world preaches as truth. For believers we are to live by a different standard of truth. God's Word is the only source of that truth and our uncompromising stand on the Word of God puts us in a place, or standard of understanding that can only come from an absolute. Our absolute is Abba Father, Jehovah God, the Great I Am. He made all things come into order and made the world we walk on and the air we breathe, so He is very important as our standard. Without God as our pure source of truth, we lose some very important things, like life, like existence, like life after death. So it is very important to set up the foundation of our lives on Him and Him alone. When we drift toward the dark side it causes a weakening of the overall effect God intended for us to have as believers. It makes our black and white truth gray in nature and that is a dangerous thing to do. We have seen the effect of compromising believers and we are living with the result of that compromise. It causes us to fight each other and thus sets us on a course of weakness. What can get the strength of the movement of believers back strong again? The undeniable belief that God is the ONE we must believe and follow. In Ephesians 4 Paul wrote, "Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
Genuine tolerance for other believers is our attempt to keep the unity of those of the faith and that unity is still bound to the truth of who God is. In verse 4 Paul completes the thought by saying "There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all." Here is the escape for those who are living in the gray. They just need to believe once again that our faith is the only faith that gives the life we are looking for and that the world needs. The desire to live for Christ alone is rekindled and the fire of the Holy Spirit begins to work a great work in their life and they are back "in the flow" of the sanctification process as they grow with their brothers and sisters in Christ. Oneness is a reality again and the strength of the gospel message is once again the priority to reach a lost and dying world. The problem with our faith today is that we are segmented and wandering aimlessly around with no central conviction that we stand on and that causes the graying of our spiritual condition. Gray is a cool color, but it is known as a compromise color to please all who see it. We are to live the color "white" and that is to be lived with others in what the Bible calls a like-minded lifestyle. What has caused us to compromise? In Revelation, God's Word says, "But this I have against you, that you have left your first love." If God has crept down the line and is no longer your first love it is time to put Him back where He deserves to be at number one. When He is number one everything else falls into place and there is a no compromised life position when that happens. That life compels other believers to get in line with you. That oneness comes from all of us putting God where He has to be....at the top of our life. When that happens we begin to see God changing us, changing our relationships, and changing our world. It changes our convictions. We hear the word religion thrown around a lot today and even used it to describe the Christian faith. I don't personally subscribe to that word. I am not part of a religion. I am in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ my Lord. Made possible through the shedding of the blood of the Son of God my sins are paid for completely and my relationship with God is very intimate as I am able to call Him Abba Father. There is no religion that can make that happen, so I reject the world's terminology in that area of my life. It's just "a thing" for me. To quote a well known president from the past "It wouldn't be prudent." But, my relationship with God through Jesus does have it's conditions. That relationship compels me to be convicted about sin and compels me to share the message of hope with others. All of that compelling is done by the Holy Spirit and God grows me even closer every day to the person He wants me to be. That takes me far away from gray and leads me to His way of thinking and living but that is contrary to the world's way of thinking. In Matthew 24 Jesus is speaking of His return and what will happen before His return, and it is very sobering, yet encouraging, to see that we are an intricate part of the end times. So important are we that satan will try to stop us at every turn and try to put gray in our life purpose. Apathy will become the magnet that is the attempt to keep the gospel from being preached. We see it today in our world and those who take a stand will have to stand withtout other believers standing with them at times, but God will continue to be our strength and our shield. In Matthew 24:12-13 Jesus says, "Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved." The tendency to compromise is just a "trick" and that trick should be seen by all who know Jesus. The cost of compromising the true gospel is lost souls that should be reached.
The question is; Are you living in the gray and living a life of compromise? Or are you living a life of no compromise? It is important to know which you have attached your life to and then recognize the life God wants you to live. I hope you are not compromising the message of Christ, but that you are standing stronger every day for the message of Christ. Eternity is looking on as you live. Make the right choice.
The Pilgrimage continues...
David Warren
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