Recently I read the following while browsing online and from my own experience I understand it to be true: “The Army is meeting its recruiting goals partly by accepting more enlistees who lack high school diplomas, who have low scores on the military’s aptitude test or receive waivers for criminal and medical problems. Army documents obtained by NPR link the lowered standards to a drop since November 2001 in the number of men interested in joining up.” NPR.com The question that agitated my mind was: should we be concerned about the results that are inevitable due to the decision to lower the standards of enlisting into the Army, an organization structured to protect the liberty of its country?
Soon after reading the above article I encountered the following headline of another article: Church of England issues formal apology to LGBTQ members amid spat over same-sex marriage which was written by Jon Brown from Fox News. In part, it reads: “As we have listened, we have been told time and time again how we have failed LGBTQI+ people. We have not loved you as God loves you, and that is profoundly wrong. We affirm, publicly and unequivocally, that LGBTQI+ people are welcome and valued: we are all children of God.” I was cornered by another agitating question: “Should we be concerned when the church of Christ, the organisation structured to preserve the light of spiritual salvation demonstrates that it has lowered its standard of righteousness?”
According to the gospel of Mark 1:15 & Matthew 3:2-4 the subject of Jesus’ first sermon was ‘Repent because the Kingdom of God is here.’ Yet rather than continuing to carry this message forward the social pressures of our times and careless approach to the inspired word of God has caused us to lower the standard of righteousness lead many to believe that sin doesn’t need to be repented of.
We Will All Be Offended by the Words of the Christ
In John six verses forty-one through forty-two we’re told: “The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” And they said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” In this scenario we have the Jewish people, who were entrenched with many conflicting beliefs about the appearance and mission of the Messiah now being forced to decide whether they should align with the truth on the subject or not. This was a very difficult thing for them to do. In fact, parting ways with long held beliefs is oftentimes difficult for us all to do because they have become apart of us. Nevertheless, that is exactly what interacting with the Way, the Truth and the Life requires from each of us: to decide if will be and remain committed to Him despite the struggle against self (the one who stubbornly protects our erroneous views) that is required. Hebrews chapter four and verse twelve states: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Yet we resist the Divine cutting because we do not trust the Divine surgeon. One writer noted: “Character building is the work, not of a day, nor of a year, but of a lifetime. The struggle for conquest over self, for holiness and heaven, is a lifelong struggle. Without continual effort and constant activity, there can be no advancement in the divine life, no attainment of the victor’s crown.” Ministry of Healing
Conclusion
In verses sixty-six through sixty-eight it says: From that time many of His disciples went [p]back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away? ” But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Jesus cannot lower His standard of holiness to win friends and companions in His cause. It is repentance from the disease of sin that presents the greatest witness of God’s love and power in the life of the believer.
The words spoken to the woman in John eight were: “Go away and sin no more” and those same words apply to us today. The warning in Revelation twenty-one and verse eight applies to each of us:
“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
And the promise from Philippians chapter one and verse six is also for each of us: “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
As we grow in our knowledge and experience of the person of God and the love He provides the hardness of our hearts will melt into wax capable of being shaped by his compassionate hands.
I will close with the following: “This Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon; without science and learning, He shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of schools, He spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, He set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times.” Philip Schaff, The Person of Christ.