Comfort & Counsel

Home  Articles  Site map

Pointers along the way #422

To be without convictions
- Jacob Ninan

The trend of the times is to try and make everyone 'open-minded', 'non-judgemental', etc., and to avoid being labelled 'narrow-minded', 'fundamentalist', etc. What this amounts to is to make us perpetually sit on the fence about all issues, afraid to hold any convictions and certainly to refrain entirely from expressing any of our own opinions unless it falls under the category of 'open-minded'. What a pathetic way to live!

What is being marketed under this open mind umbrella is all kind of muck. Things which everyone instinctively knew to be wrong are now promoted through all forms of media, and nobody dares to speak up against them. Right to speech is freely misused by the wrong side of the moral fence, and and those on the right side have had this right taken away from them. Even Christian leaders have fallen into this trap, and they have also become very conscious of having to be 'politically correct'. They recognise how allegations of narrow-mindedness can affect their popularity. Will we rather be popular than true? Will we bow down to Satan just a little bit in order to win parts of the kingdom he offers? Jesus saw through the temptation straightaway.

One of the secrets behind any real greatness is a set of convictions about what are true, good, valuable, etc. These great men do not flow along with the current but swim against opposition in order to reach worthy goals they see before them.

God has given us His word for us to learn from, regarding Himself, the things He values, the people He admires, the way He works and the way He wants us to live. These have been tested by multitudes of people through the times and found to be true and reliable. They give us success (in the right sense) in this world and especially in the life to come (Ps.1:3). How foolish of us if we would put them aside in order to woo the approval of people and society!

Under this great onslaught from the prince of this world, we Christians are tempted to focus on 'surviving' and 'succeeding' in this world at the cost of forfeiting greatness in the world to come (He.11:26). Don't we need to think about how Jesus said it was not possible to believe as long as we were focused on greatness as the world defines it (Jn.5:44)? Do we not see that there is a snare which we get trapped by when we begin to pay more attention to people's opinion than God's (Ga.1:10;Pr.29:25)?

Reverence for the Lord gives insight (Pr.9:10), and those who have insight will one day shine like stars (Da.12:3). But right now they are ridiculed and ostracised by the majority even though they are really the ones who can impart true understanding to everyone (Da.11:33). The question is what we will live for, the temporary 'acceptance', 'success' and survival in this world, or recognition and rewards from God in the time to come. Wouldn't it be much better to be welcomed with "Well done, good and faithful servant" over there than to forgo it by compromise here?

Index

Subscribe to the 'Pointers along the way' mailing list