It’s time to take God serious.
Christianity isn’t about religion it’s about relationship. How many times have we heard this in our Christian lives? “Christianity isn’t about rules, it’s not about coming to church on Sunday’s, it’s not about reading Gods word”. While that is true, being a Christian is ultimately about putting your trust in Jesus Christ. I mean look at the murderer on the cross who put his trust in Jesus and was saved without ever reading a bible or going to church. However, something tells me if he would’ve made it off that cross for the rest of his life, he would have pursued Christ. For the past century it seems our culture has been making a shift from the strict interpretation of the bible to a loose liberal viewing of interpretation. Nowadays many people don’t go to church to get “fed” with the word, they go to church to make them feel better about themselves. If we look around at the largest church’s in America such as Elevation, Lakewood Church, and even Transformation Church there’s one thing in common. A soft gospel. This is a gospel that has been watered down to appeal to a public that ultimately wants to fulfil the desires of their flesh. This gospel they preach is a gospel where sin is rarely existing, where homosexuality is acceptable, where true righteousness is not pursued. Now I am not trying to come across as a hater, I believe all of these pastors have some great illustrations in their messages, they ultimately speak that Jesus died for our sins and was resurrected on the third day. But possibly because of the size of their congregation they allow themselves to be limited in how much truth they can speak.
While yes Christianity is about a relationship with Jesus, in order to pursue Christ with the best of your ability you must be sound in doctrine. In Titus 2:1 “But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.” In Machen’s book named “Christianity and Liberalism” he discusses the seriousness of speaking sound doctrine. He shows that a Christians primary job is to be a witness for Christ. Well when a man is put on the witness stand, he is required and under oath to say not only the truth but the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Well how much more important than is it that we speak about Christ in truth and sound doctrine? That we don’t twist the bible to achieve our own devices but speak in complete truth. At the end of the day it is God’s Word that is able to truly change individuals, families, cities. My challenge would for all of us to take Gods word seriously. As a younger Christian, I could see times in my life when I took bible verses out of context, where I believed in prosperity Gospel, heck I even had a time when I watched Joel Osteen every Sunday morning! But God has allowed my eyes to be open to understand that the Gospel is Jesus and Jesus alone. And if I am to take Jesus as my Lord and Savior than I better invest time into truly understanding His word!
