Why We Must Fight
Colossians 3:1, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived”
Our secular society struggles to come up with anything but band-aid solutions to some of the worst problems plaguing our nation: Increased crime, drug abuse, academic cheating, ethics violations, corruption from the top-down, and so on. One primary reason it cannot handle these, is because it cannot accurately define the greatest problem that is killing us: the depravity of the human heart due to sin, which leads to death. We are depraved because we have rebelled against the Author of Life, going against the blueprint of salvation He has laid out in His Word. Our world of rogue goats are bleating cries of distress, failing to understand why it cannot find pasture after rejecting the Shepherd’s voice.
So much meaning is lost when we fail to pass on our founders’ motivations. Walls are dismantled with no thought as to what they were protecting in the first place, then they wonder why our society is spiraling out of control. “This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ I appointed watchmen over you and said, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But you said, ‘We will not listen.’ Therefore hear, O nations; observe, O witnesses, what will happen to them. Hear, O earth: I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their schemes, because they have not listened to my words and have rejected my law.” (Jeremiah 6:16-19)
The pattern of how God works comes around again: His ways are made known, a generation is humbled and brought low, a repentance leads to a reordering by God’s Law, the next couple generations decreasingly know the reasons behind their prosperity and give up the very safeguards that would save them, then society tumbles again towards collapse. Consider just one case in point: A law enforcement officer has no idea behind the reason behind taking the oath of office and swearing to protect in all manner of integrity (or even on putting their hand on the Bible), because they do not give thought to God who sees all and knows what is done in secret. So what used to be “my word is my bond” means absolutely nothing to the godless. Then for some reason, society marvels when cops “go rogue”, as we’ve seen in many cases recently, and seeks to find nonsense “solutions” such as “defunding police”, or coming up with new rules that further prohibit them from doing what they had sworn to do!
The solution is so incredibly simple, yet so hard for many to stomach: “Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?" declares the LORD. "This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.” (Isaiah 66:2) However, to those who understand this, we are “speaking to the choir”, preaching to those whose eyes have already been opened, and hearts quickened to receive it. So it is to YOU that I make this appeal: We should not be surprised at all when the world, this “culture of death” acts like it does. Rather, it’s amazing (the Grace of God) that we haven’t completely come apart already! He holds our world in His Hand, and because of His mysterious purposes, including using us to “snatch others out of the fire” (Jude 1:23), we are called to save every life we can! In the meantime, it is up to US to make sure WE don’t lose sight of our calling in Col 3:1-7.
This calling describes who we are, where the rest of the world stands without Christ, the means by which we protect ourselves from its corrupting influence, and the reminder that time is short: His wrath is coming, and He will come to bring us into glory! We fight for life in all its forms, even those things in society which could hinder unrestricted worship for generations in the future. However, we must keep our highest life priorities centered around one’s eternal condition before God, because that properly orders everything else! Not only do we understand that any one of use could be “here today, gone tomorrow”, but we also know that only a child of light is capable of “walking in the light” (John 12:36, 1 John 1:7, 2:10) Though others may be graced with common sense because our world is divinely ordered, there is no righteous spirit within them to empower them for consistently righteous living.
Jewish radio host Dennis Prager speaks against much of “modern” society when he holds to the doctrine that man is evil at the heart and not good, yet he is inconsistent then when he derives the solution for society’s ills from human effort. Though he may recognize the problems with considerable clarity, the spiritual inconsistency leads him to bring the wrong solutions to the table. Pastor Andy Stanley of North Point Community Church has naturally gone off the rails in other areas when he fails to put the sufficiency of God’s Word before all things. We who have the Spirit of God and access to the Throne room of Heaven, must recognize the responsibility that comes with having the most consistent world view by God’s Design. We must recognize our place on earth in articulating before them the Gospel, which is the only means by which we can come to true joy, hope, and peace.
By all means, fight for the well-being of your neighbor, but your neighbor, and all those involved, must come to the understanding why it is you fight, and, Lord Willing, come to understand why that matters. You have been “raised with Christ” (Col 3:1), your life is now “hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3) and now “Christ IS your life” (Col 3:4)!
