The Word

The Word – OK, I promise, the last Robinson Crusoe installment! This time it involves Crusoe’s faith journey and his attempt to evangelize his servant, Friday.

Another thing I cannot refrain from observing here also, from experience in this retired portion of my life, how infinite and inexpressible a blessing it is that the knowledge of God, and of the doctrine of salvation by Christ Jesus, is so plainly laid down in the Word of God, so easy to be received and understood; that as the bare reading the Scripture made me capable of understanding enough of my duty to carry me directly on to the great work of sincere repentance for my sins, and laying hold of a Saviour for life and salvation, to a stated reformation in practice, and obedience to all God’s commands, and this without any teacher or instructor (I mean human); so did the plain instruction sufficiently serve to the enlightening this savage creature, and bringing him to be such a Christian, as I have known few equal to him in my life.

We make Christianity so hard sometimes. We fight over this stance or that stance. We attempt to turn our elections into Holy Wars. We write off whole segments of the population because their brand of Christianity does not agree with ours.

Granted, stands on many of these issues are important, and they may indeed be reflective of God’s will on one side or the other, oddly enough usually the side we support is the side that God is on as well! How fortunate for us! We end up arguing over the obscure points of Scripture, often to the abandonment of the clear teaching of God’s Word!

The truth is the Scripture, plain and simple, is given as a guide to lead us to Jesus Christ. It is not a weapon for one side to beat up the other. Jesus lays it out so clearly. When asked what the most important teaching in Scripture is, he responds “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Even our love for self and neighbor comes after that. That's the greatest sermon there is, right there, wrapped up in less than 25 words. Oh, that we could just do it!

It takes us a long time to learn that only when we put love of Christ above all else, only then are we able to love ourselves, much less our neighbor! This does not mean that all our disagreements will go away. We will still have them because it is the living out of this life, the particulars, where we find ourselves at odds over and over again. It DOES mean that we learn what is most important, the unity God's seeks for us to have with sisters and brothers in Christ. It is this learning that glorifies our God and lives the Gospel out for all the world to see!

Pastor Craig