Worship While It’s Warm

In my last post, I talked about the nature of sin being rebellion in our hearts that does not want to conform to God’s moral and righteous standards and therefore, wants to act independent of God’s standards.

Now you may be reading this and say, “ok that does not really apply to me because I have the love of God in my heart”. And perhaps may even relegate this discussion to those who do not know Christ.

But the simple truth is that each one of us contends with sin everyday, the principle at work in us that does not want us to conform to righteous demands of God. And that sin will want self to rule. If we love the Lord and desire to follow after Him, I don’t think that self-rule will be bold or blatant but will be very subtle and creep in to what we consider our opinions and our perspective on things.

Now our perspectives will be influenced by many factors, including life experiences, expectations and disappointments, family history, and general life observations. And the sin principle at work in us will want us to filter our christianity and biblical understanding through the lens of our perspectives. The self-rule will say “I think this is important and this is the way it should be”.

So consider for a moment those ideas that you hold dear about what this christian life is all about, or suppose to be about from your perspective. More importantly, consider your doctrinal positioning and think about the defenses you raise when there is a contradictory position. I have found in my blogging travels that certain people will rally around discussions about specific topics but are nowhere to be seen in others. Why? Perhaps there is an agenda to uphold a certain position.

We come to Christ with baggage and that baggage must be left at the foot of the cross. The sin principle that wants to keep our agendas at the forefront, must first be recognized and as self-interest but more importantly subjected to the unadulterated and objective consideration of biblical truth. We will undoubtedly come across concepts and commands that trouble us that we may even deem unfair. The self-rule of our perspective may dismiss these ideas as contrary but a submitted heart would say to God “I don’t like what this is saying, but if this is true, help me to understand”.

If we are not mindful of this self-rule, we will most likely gravitate to those with like opinions and reject opposing viewpoints. With mass support, our positions become validated. And so I consider Paul’s encouragement to Timothy:

Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For a time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4:2-4, nasb)