Test it All

Sunday, I was talking to a woman in the congregation who recently went to a family reunion. She told me “You would have been proud: when talking about Church with my cousin, I didn’t say ‘my preacher said,’ I told her ‘The Bible says!’” And I can admit, I was proud of that. Not proud because of anything I did, but proud because someone was using the Bible to say “this is what we believe and why.” I was proud of it because we believe a lot of extrabiblical things in the Church, don’t we? Each denomination has a different set of beliefs (though we all have more in common than we think), and each individual congregation has traditions, practices and beliefs that vary even from the movement or association from which they sprung. If I can be honest, as a preacher, that bothers me.

We have a litmus test for our beliefs. It is Scripture. I’m not one of those guys who believes that there’s no room for different styles of worship; where the Bible speaks, I choose to speak, and where it is silent, I leave my opinion out of it. I’m also of the mind that in essentials, we should have unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things, have charity. Yet, in the Lord’s Church, we lift up tradition, musical styles, pulpits, buildings, charters and associations above Scripture. “We’ve always done it this way,” or “my grandmother would not approve” destroy opportunities for growth and the Gospel. So, my encouragement for today is this: test it all. Test every thought, action, tradition, belief, word, sermon and everything else against Scripture. Test it against SCRIPTURE, not your tradition or belief system.

We’ve allowed the world to creep in. And if it’s not a Scriptural belief, it’s, at best, an opinion, and if it’s non-essential, should be given liberty, or at worst, set aside for the sake of unity with Christ, His word, and His people. Jesus died for me; let me live for Him. He said that the world would know we are His by how we love one another. Let us then be unified in Christ, lifting up His word as supreme. Examine everything by His word, and let us, together do the work of the Gospel set before us.

John 15:1-11

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

1 John 4:1-6

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

2 Timothy 3

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.

You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.