Think
Good Morning,
Listening to political news is interesting, especially when people go to the street to interview the average person. When asked, “Why” they want to vote for their favorite candidate, most people do not know. The average American cannot articulate the ideologies, policies, and philosophies of their desired leader. They want a person of color, or they want a woman, or they want someone who will give them stuff. To have a political ideology and an understanding of a Constitutional Republic is unheard-of. To vote for a person who looks a certain way without knowing what they will do with war, the economy, immigration, or education is crazy!
The reality is tragic, but it is a result of a society not teaching people to think. We have developed a nation of people who decide what they do according to feelings. Someone may say they feel like a woman, or they do not feel comfortable as a woman. So what! You are what God made you to be. Biology demands that you be a man or a woman, and that cannot change. The divorce rate is horrific because people are as faithful to their wedding vows as the FEEL like being. Their political view about the border is motivated by seeing poor, homeless travelers, not logic and reason. No one can enjoy life long without logic and reason.
I encounter similar results when I talk to people about their faith. Many church goers I meet out soul winning “think” they are going to Heaven, but cannot tell you why. They choose a church because it makes them FEEL good. When they are asked about their belief or doctrine, those elements seem unimportant and nonessential for which church they choose to attend. Each month, while our church people are soul winning, I would guess that several people who attend a “feel good” church end up getting saved when they are presented with the Gospel - people who, previously, had no understanding of what the Bible said about salvation until we knocked on their door.
Paul reminded Timothy that Timothy thoroughly knew what Paul believed and practiced.
2 Timothy 3:10 “But thou hast fully known my doctrine…”
While Paul wanted those who followed him to fully know and understand his doctrine and beliefs, he warned that the day would come when people would not endure sound doctrine.
2 Timothy 4:3 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;”
Notice the phrase, “endure sound doctrine.” It is not always enjoyable; to know and to understand doctrine requires work. It takes work to know doctrine; it takes time, personal study, faithfulness to church, and focused attention on the preaching. To know good doctrine, according to Paul, requires endurance. A Bible believer will need to work at it and endure the things that accompany biblical understanding. Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:15 to study to show oneself approved unto God, but then he writes more; he says that the work of study will keep the believer from being ashamed.
2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
In our vernacular, “Shame on you for not knowing the Book!” When that person faces questions about their church, doctrine, and belief, they will be ashamed for not having any reason, Bible logic, or clear facts for their faith. Daily study and faithfulness to a good Bible-teaching and Bible-preaching church allows you to gain knowledge and to rightly divide the Word. To be “unashamed,” one needs a church that teaches doctrine and says one thing is right and another thing is wrong. That kind of church is not as popular because we live in a feel-good society (we want to make our decisions based upon how we feel).
Without knowledge and reason, facts and logic, we will loose our faith and our nation. THINK!
Pastor