1 John 2:24-25
One
of the main principles in math is that you have to remember what you learned
before when you move onto more advanced topics. You still have to be able to
add, subtract, multiply and divide when you are doing calculus. Just because
things get more complicated doesn’t mean you abandon the basics. The basics
hold the more advanced things together. If you say that multiplication no
longer is valid when you do calculus, then the whole system of mathematics falls
apart.
The
same is true for our faith. If we abandon some of the basic Truth we learned
early on in our relationship with the LORD, our faith becomes unglued from
reality. Take God’s Omnipresence as an example. The fact that He is everywhere
present all the time is a basic characteristic of His nature. No matter where
you go, He is already there. You can never get away from Him. Even in the
darkest moments of life, He is present. He is not a localized deity with power
only in one locality.
This
Truth must never be abandoned. Even when much more complicated theological
questions arise, we don’t abandon the truth of His presence in order to find an
answer to the question. The answer must incorporate the truth of His presence.
If He is absent in any particular place, then who is to say He is present in
any place? If He is absent in any particular time, then who is to say He is
present at this time? He is either eternal or He isn’t!
John’s
readers were being pressured by the false teachers to abandon some of the basic
truths they had been taught early on in their faith. These truths are
fundamental to the faith. If they are abandoned, then the faith loses its
essential and fundamental nature. And that is exactly what those who were
called antichrists had done. They had left the fundamentals about who Jesus is.
They had adopted some other view of His person and nature. And for John, this
was a matter of life and death. Eternity was in the balance.
There
are those today who would tell us that the fundamental truths we have learned
about Jesus are backward, ancient, narrow-minded, bigoted, simplistic, and many
other demeaning adjectives. They say those who were closest to the events, even
eyewitnesses to the events can’t be trusted as much as people thousands of
years withdrawn from them. We are told that their motives were impure, trying
to bolster their political ends or some other hidden agenda. But we are
supposed to trust these modern day prophets’ motives?
Once
we cut the link to the basics of our faith, then the whole is able to be moved
at the whisper of convenience. The politically correct crowd blows and people
abandon sacred marriage for the new handshake sex where intimacy is nothing
special. We give up fullness and end up empty. We lose eternity and gain what?
Temporary pleasure, convenience, self-esteem, an inflated sense of
self-importance. We put everything at risk with no upside.
What
they heard brought them truth about eternal life. And eternal life isn’t
something only for the future, eternal life begins now. As we are transformed
by His Spirit in this life, eternity becomes present. As the Eternal God makes
His presence and power known in us, eternity takes over. Death is just the
twinkling of an eye. We pass from death to life.
Don’t
give up on the basics of our faith. No matter what the pressures are around us,
follow the example of those around the world who are giving their lives even as
you read. They are not abandoning their faith. They are standing firm to the
end.