You downloaded a game on your phone and can’t wait to play it. The first thing is to read the instructions to know the rules of the game, or in some cases, the app guides you through the initial or any steps of the game so that you can understand the rules that guide it and how it’s done.
Why is it so?
This is because you are not the owner or pioneer of the game. The maker sets the guidelines, which only work when you play by the rules.
There is a race everyone is running, and there is a goal to be attained. There is a price for everyone to pay and a prize to win.
This race did not start with you or me.
A pioneer has the ability, freedom, or flexibility to determine the rules of a game or whatever they are pioneering. But for everyone else coming under the identity of that life, you are obliged to follow the principles and guidelines of that identity.
With this, we ask ourselves, what has become of the Christian identity?
How is it that we identify as Christians but blatantly reject the lifestyles that represent Christianity? We read the Bible, give it our interpretation, and run ahead with it without allowing God to guide us to the right.
How do we identify as Christians but not reflect it in our words, actions, or even appearance but rather have Bible quotations to back up our stubbornness and impunity?
What then becomes of the saints who gave their lives to pass this gospel and lifestyles to us?
Do you have any idea how much they gave to make sure that this truth is preserved?
- Paul was beheaded
- Peter was crucified upside down, and Stephen was stoned.
- Mark was dragged to death by a horse
- Bartholomew was flayed to death by a whip.
We could go on and on to mention every one of them, but the point is;
Will God change the standard these saints painfully preserved because we live in modern times?
Will He look into the eyes of the apostles and tell them: ‘Oh, I am sorry, times have changed, and I have decided that indecent appearance is now acceptable since I look only at the heart and not the outward appearance? Etc.
We must understand that the fight for the truth can be challenging because the truth must be preserved at all costs, a cost born by Christ and the early saints.
So instead of trying to interpret God’s Word to suit our standards, let us ask God for the grace to live up to His standard because His standards won’t change for us.
