Line Upon Line

And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to live in obedience to him. Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with thanksgiving for all he has done. Don't let anyone lead you astray with empty philosophy and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the evil powers of this world, and not from Christ. Colossians 2:6-8 (NLT)

There are a lot of voices out there. A multitude of messages can be heard on radio, TV, and the Internet, and read in books, magazines, and newspapers (this includes "Christian" media, too). So, if you're not established in God's Word and "taking heed to what you hear," it's possible--no, make that probable--that you will stray away from the Truth. Paul expressed this concern for the believers in the Corinthian church when he wrote:

I hope you will be patient with me as I keep on talking like a fool. Please bear with me. I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God himself. For I promised you as a pure bride to one husband, Christ. But I fear that somehow you will be led away from your pure and simple devotion to Christ, just as Eve was deceived by the serpent. You seem to believe whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach about a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed (2 Corinthians 11:1-4 NLT).

Paul was afraid that the believers in Corinth had lost sight of the simple, yet powerful, truths of the gospel, and he used the seduction of Eve by the serpent as an example.

"But [now] I am fearful, lest that even as the serpent beguiled Eve by his cunning, so your minds may be corrupted and seduced from wholehearted and sincere and pure devotion to Christ" (AMP).

How was Eve seduced? First, she listened to the serpent's lies--lies about God's integrity, lies about what God had said, and lies about the benefits of eating the forbidden fruit. Eve believed those lies, and finally, she acted on them.

Adam and Eve lived in Paradise (literally)--a perfect place of unsurpassed beauty and abundance. They enjoyed the glory of God's presence and fellowship with Him. They had been given authority to rule over all the earth. There was one restriction placed on them, however--they were told not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When Adam and Eve disregarded and disobeyed the commandment of God, it cost them everything. They lost their focus--they forfeited their lives.

"People Makes Me Complicated"

Bible teacher Norvel Hayes recalls the time God spoke to Him and said, "People makes me complicated." No, that's not a misquote; that's what Norvel said the Lord said to him (God speaks to each of us in language we can understand). Bad grammar aside, the message is an important one to hear and take to heart. What God has made simple, people tend to complicate.

Advertisers and marketers are familiar with K.I.S.S. (not the rock group). K.I.S.S. stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid. It serves as a little reminder that people tend to accept new ideas and products that are easy to understand and simple to use. If you want people to "get it," you've got to keep it simple.

God's done that very thing with the gospel--He's made it easy for a person to be saved. "And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Acts 2:21). Look, He had to make it simple--because if He'd made it any harder than believing in our heart that He raised Jesus from the dead, and confessing with our mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, none of us would ever be saved (See Romans 10:8-13).

But, even in regard to salvation, we complicate the thing that God has simplified. That's what religion does--and does extremely well. Most religious instruction and religious traditions serve to redirect our focus from simply trusting, worshipping, loving, and serving God, to a catalogue of meaningless observances and empty obligations.

Obscuring the Obvious

In his book, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, social philosopher Eric Hoffer stressed the importance of doctrine as a motivating force of any movement. Hoffer made an interesting observation, one I have found to be true in the Church, too. He wrote,

When some part of a doctrine is relatively simple, there is a tendency among the faithful to complicate and obscure it. Simple words are made pregnant with meaning and made to look like symbols in a secret message. Thus there is an illiterate air about the most literate true believer. He seems to use words as if he were ignorant of their true meaning. Hence, too, his taste for quibbling, hair-splitting and scholastic tortuousness.

I have heard more than one Bible teacher preface his comments on a passage of Scripture by saying, "Now, this isn't exactly what this verse means, but...." Whoa, wait a minute, here! Is it the work of the teacher to invent revelations--to make God and the Scriptures say things God has not said, and mean things He has not meant? I think not! It's the teacher's job (ministry, gift, calling) to explain the truth of God's Word so that it can be understood. I have sat in more than one meeting and shaken my head in disbelief at the "mysteries" expounded upon by teachers who show their ignorance of God and His Word. Mesmerized congregations marvel at the "deepness" of such instructors--but are none the wiser in the end.

Yes, we have a way of making things more difficult than they are--and, like Eve, we are most apt to do so when we are either ignore or forget what God has said. It's vital that we stay focused on the important truths of God's Word. Maybe we should consider getting back to the basics of the faith, instead of running after every "new" thing that comes along. Just a thought...

Remember Eve.

Stay focused--stay faithful!

think on these things...

1 Timothy 4:1 (NKJV)
Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.

Ephesians 4:11-15 (NLT)
He [Jesus] is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ. Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth. Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.

1 Timothy 6:20-21 (NLT)
Timothy, guard what God has entrusted to you. Avoid godless, foolish discussions with those who oppose you with their so-called knowledge. Some people have wandered from the faith by following such foolishness. May God's grace be with you all.

2 Timothy 3:1-17 (NKJV)
But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was. But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

But as for you, continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.