If You Love Him...

 

One of my Instagram followers pointed out that the post shown above was deep yet simply laid out. After thinking about it, I realized that it merited some elaboration on this blog. 

When Pontius Pilate asked the question, "What is truth?", he meant it rhetorically as if to say that nobody knows what truth is. Of course, we as believers know that Jesus is Truth. Difficulty comes from not knowing and understanding exactly who Jesus is as revealed in Scripture, so that we are not in error when it comes to discerning the truth. This is why we not only need to study all the scriptures in context, but also to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth to us and help us to have a right understanding of what we read. Once we have knowledge of the truth, we need to apply it. Both are required, and both are more easily said than done. 

There are some truths than are more obvious, and there are some that require much more illumination, wisdom and instruction. An example of an obvious truth would be the wrongness of simple theft. Even a small child naturally knows that it's wrong for another child to take candy away from him. A not so obvious truth would be the wrongness of homosexuality. I'm going to use this example to point out why the search for truth is crucial to the understanding of right and wrong. 

In the United States, we live in a country where the practice of homosexuality is legal. Most Bible-believing Christians know that the scriptures condemn it as a sin. However, when we read the scriptures in context we find that homosexuality is just one of many sins which the Bible condemns, and in fact is not even the worst sin. In Matthew 10:15, Jesus, referring to the unbelieving Jews in the cities he was sending His disciples to, said, "Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city." Sodom (from where the word sodomy originates) and Gomorrha were ancient cities rampant with homosexuality. 

The worst sin is the sin of unbelief in Jesus Christ. By not believing in Him, you have no redeemer and no hope. You will need to pay your own sin debt to God, and that means spending eternity in Hell. Obviously in a country like ours that was modeled on Christian principles of individual liberty, unbelief in Jesus is also legal. Christian liberty includes the freedom of conscience given to us by God. He does not coerce us into submission to Him, and therefore tolerates our unbelief while we are here on this earth. 

And so it is with the legality of homosexuality. As a nation guided by Christian principles, we do not legally persecute homosexuals as in some Islamic countries. The problem is that legality confers certain rights and privileges which in turn set up conflicts in society, some of which are foreseen only by God Himself. People generally equate legality with rightness, and to some extent that's understandable. The original lawgiver is God, and all His laws are right. Governments such as ours that seek to model right principles have established laws which are purportedly consistent with those principles. But when laws contrary to His character and nature are enacted, it forces citizens to choose whether they will stand with God's Word or with man-made laws.

Many will accept the rightness of the man-made law because they either do not believe or do not understand the God-given law. Some believe in their hearts the God-given law is right, yet accept the man-made law because of blind submission taught from a wrong interpretation of some passage of the Bible, such as in Romans 13, or a false notion of Christian tolerance supposedly taught by Jesus in Matthew 7. And some accept the man-made law simply out of cowardice. So there are many reasons why people do not follow what God says is right and true or do not insist that man-made laws reflect that truth.

The committed Christian will always side with God's law, even when he or she does not fully understand why God's law is correct. This is where faith comes in. We simply can't know all the specific unforeseen future consequences of abandoning God's Word, but we do know there will be repercussions as surely as ripples radiating from a stone thrown into a pond. So, having at least this much truth revealed to us, we can conclude that legalized homosexuality and the accompanying legal rights such as rights of marriage, adoption, etc., will not result in God blessing a nation that adopts them. And that's just one example. I could give you many more, but it always comes back to the central question posed by Satan in the Garden of Eden: "Hath God said...?". The true answer to that question, and how we respond to it, determines the direction of a nation and its people. 

Do not be deceived. American will never be great again until we make America godly again. When enough people in America begin to do what's right according to His Word, we will see true revival and blessing from God. But it all starts with loving Jesus enough to take Him at His Word, even when the nation's laws, the rest of the world, and even your own opinions tell you not to.

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