The Truth that Sets Us Free

 May 25, 2024

Saturday

Media is a powerful tool. It isn't just the news. It is all of entertainment. The news has just become part of the entertainment business and we want to criticize it for being entertainment rather than historical reporting. Let's accept that it is entertainment. It is, as other media, trying to change our views of what we have held for a long time.

The individual is becoming celebrated because he or she breaks out of what has been an accepted role. Queen Elsa in Frozen is excited that she doesn't need to be the good girl anymore. Isabela in Encanto can make cacti rather than flowers and becomes excited with the line, "What else can I do?" It seems that rebellion is the virtue being promoted and compliance is frowned upon.

That is happening in the Christian community too. There are those who do not attend church, nor serve in any Christian community that are praised for breaking the chains that the church has held on them. They are lauded for their rebellion from being the people who are free from attending church regularly. They claim they have a stronger relationship with the Lord than ever before. Major Christian authors have supported the claims of these people. I am not a major anything in the Christian world but I don't think this is God's plan for His people. I believe He wants His children in church when they can be in church. 

The church was so important to believers in the New Testament that excluding someone from church was used as a motivator to come into compliance with God's word. In Paul's first existing Corinthian letter, Paul admonishes the church for allowing incest in the church to go unchecked. Surely, this is a rebellion beyond what pagans would allow. He tells the church to exclude those who are doing such so that they can be brought back into fellowship with the church. That doesn't sound like approval of their individuality in choosing what values are theirs and theirs alone.

Those who are rejecting their practice of faith are actually just joining a different crowd. As soon as someone says that what they are doing is okay, others join the rebellion. What is approved becomes vogue. Soon, everyone wants to be the individual who doesn't follow the crowd. The irony is that they are following the crowd.

There is another problem. How does anyone make the journey back to the faith they once had if they have declared themselves to be rejecters of that faith? The answer is simple: humility. Now, that's something that is not in vogue. There, of course, will be a lot of crow to eat and there will be those who will not trust the one coming home. You can't leave one day and walk back to be exactly in the same place as you were before. Trust is faithfulness over time. Losing trust in unfaithfulness in a moment.

Becoming a disciple of Jesus requires one to hold onto the truth of His words. That means these words can slip away from you if you don't hold onto them. We must continue in what Jesus says so that we don't stop living in what Jesus said. The old flesh simply does not want to accept this. It wants to celebrate the flesh with rebellion against the words of Jesus. But true disciples remain in His word. They abide in His word.  They continue. They hold onto. 

Watch carefully those who will celebrate the individualism that removes people from walking with Jesus even if it claims to walk with Jesus. Look to see if these people are doing what God's word has said or if they are doing what makes them happy. The truth is not inside us. It is found in a person and His name is Jesus. Be a true disciple. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

John 8:31–32 (NASB 2020) ³¹ So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly My disciples; ³² and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”