| Do You Believe in Anything Worth Contending For
Jason Engwer It's popular today to live a trivial life and to have a trivial worldview. People are surrounded by more means of entertaining themselves than at any other time in history (television, radio, computers, malls, sports, etc.). Living a life that doesn't have much meaning or consequence is promoted in advertising. How else are companies going to sell these products that people wouldn't find much use for if they actually took life seriously? People have to take life seriously sometimes (a death in the family, a financial problem, etc.), but they're often encouraged to avoid it as much as possible. If you want to maintain a trivial worldview, avoid difficulties, and entertain yourself, you can. You can turn on a sitcom. You can play a video game. You can go to an arts and crafts fair. You don't have to take life seriously. There are people whose only sense of urgency in life is to get tickets for an upcoming football game, to find another pornographic site on the web, or to get to a party early enough to drink a lot of beer. There are people who don't contend for anything, because they don't believe in anything worth contending for. It's considered a commendable thing today to be so unconcerned with truth that you view all religions as basically the same. If you avoid trying to have an impact on the lives of other people, and you avoid exposing false belief systems for what they are, it's called "tolerance" and "respect". Taking the path of least resistance has never been so popular. But the people throughout history who have done the most good, who have had the longest lasting and most significant impact on the world, haven't thought this way. The Protestant reformer John Calvin, when criticized for taking matters of Christian doctrine so seriously, responded: In a corruption of sound doctrine so extreme, in a pollution of the sacraments so nefarious, in a condition of the church so deplorable, those who maintain that we ought not to have felt so strongly, would have been satisfied with nothing less than a perfidious tolerance, by which we should have betrayed the worship of God, the glory of Christ, the salvation of men, the entire administration of the sacraments, and the government of the church. There is something specious in the name of moderation, and tolerance is a quality which has a fair appearance, and seems worthy of praise; but the rule which we must observe at all hazards is, never to endure patiently that the sacred name of God should be assailed with impious blasphemy; that his eternal truth should be suppressed by the devil's lies; that Christ should be insulted, his holy mysteries polluted, unhappy souls cruelly murdered, and the church left to writhe in extremity under the effect of a deadly wound. This would be not meekness, but indifference about things to which all others ought to be postponed. (cited in Robert Zins, On the Edge of Apostasy [Huntsville, Alabama: White Horse Publications, 1998], p. 13)
Some of you may be contending for some things or may be willing to contend for those things if you had to. For example, you might love your family enough to die for them if you had to. That's good. But, as Jesus explained, even unrepentant sinners have love for their family and friends (Matthew 5:46-47, 7:11). That isn't bad, but we should go further. Do you believe in anything that has eternal implications? Do you believe in things that can actually change the worldview of other people for the better, that will impact future generations, and can affect how people will spend eternity after they die? There's a hymn I've memorized, and I try to repeat it to myself at least once every day: A charge to keep I have - a God to glorify, Who gave His Son my soul to save and fit it for the sky. To serve the present age, my calling to fulfill - O may it all my pow'rs engage to do my Master's will! Arm me with jealous care, as in Thy sight to live; And O Thy servant, Lord, prepare a strict account to give! Help me to watch and pray, and on Thyself rely; And let me ne'er my trust betray, but press to realms on high. (Charles Wesley, A Charge to Keep I Have) After you die, what will you be remembered for? How many sports statistics you had memorized? How many jokes you knew and how easily you could get people to laugh? How many cans of beer you could drink in a sitting? How well you managed your company or served tables at a restaurant? How much you were loved just because you were born into a particular family, even though you never did much else other than being born? There's a saying that's true whether you want it to be or not: One life to live, twill soon be past; Only what's done for Jesus will last. All of us need rest (Matthew 11:28). God allows us to be entertained and to enjoy life (Acts 14:17). There's a lot to enjoy. There's nothing wrong with humor. We should laugh sometimes. We should feed the hungry, take care of the sick, love our families, help friends, and do other things that aren't unique to Christianity. But what is unique to Christianity should always be on our hearts. At the same time that we try to feed and heal people's bodies, we should try to do the same for their souls. And Christ and His gospel will do that, not the false teachers and false gospels of Islam, Buddhism, Mormonism, etc. These belief systems may offer health to the body and some health to the soul, but they also offer a lot of poison to the soul. Some of the followers of these belief systems are willing to contend for their convictions, and Christians should be contending against them. What are you living for? Is entertaining yourself with hobbies and such something that you do on the side, just occasionally? Or is your relationship with God something that you do on the side, just occasionally? There's a dark, decaying world around us, going to Hell. Are you salt and light? Charles Spurgeon wrote: Those preachers whose voices were clear and mighty for truth during life continue to preach in their graves. Being dead, they yet speak; and whether men put their ears to their tombs or not, they cannot but hear them... Often, the death of a man is a kind of new birth to him; when he himself is gone physically, he spiritually survives, and from his grave there shoots up a tree of life whose leaves heal nations. O worker for God, death cannot touch thy sacred mission! Be thou content to die if the truth shall live the better because thou diest. Be thou content to die, because death may be to thee the enlargement of thine influence. Good men die as dies the seed-corn which thereby abideth not alone. When saints are apparently laid in the earth, they quit the earth., and rise and mount to Heaven-gate, and enter into immortality. No, when the sepulcher receives this mortal frame, we shall not die, but live. (cited in The C.H. Spurgeon Collection [Albany, Oregon: AGES Software, 1998], A Biography Pictoral of C.H. Spurgeon, p. 3)
The prophet Daniel was told: "those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever" - Daniel 12:3
How brightly will you shine? Labor for heavenly treasure (Matthew 6:19-20). Whether God gives you opportunity to do a little or a lot, be faithful with what you're entrusted with (1 Timothy 6:20). Whether you're a good influence to a few people or many, be a good influence. Don't dismiss things that seem small (Matthew 10:42, Hebrews 6:10). If you don't think you can do a lot, then start with a little and try to progress from there (Matthew 25:27). Think of what Paul was able to say at the end of a life of contending for things that were very much worth contending for: "I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing....The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever." - 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 4:18 "We are sent forth to-day as sheep in the midst of wolves: can there be agreement? We are kindled as lamps in the midst of darkness: can there be concord? Hath not Christ himself said, 'Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword?' You understand how all this is the truest method of endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit; for Christ the man of war, is Jesus the Peacemaker; but in order to the creation of lasting, spiritual peace, the phalanx of evil must be broken, and the unity of darkness dashed to shivers. I pray God evermore to preserve us from a unity in which truth shall be considered valueless, in which principle gives place to policy, in which the noble and masculine virtues which adorn the Christian hero are to be supplemented by an effeminate affectation of charity. May the Lord deliver us from indifference to his word and will; for this creates the cold unity of masses of ice frozen into an iceberg, chilling the air for miles around: the unity of the dead as they sleep in their graves, contending for nothing, because they have neither part nor lot in all that belongs to living men. There is a unity which is seldom broken, the unity of devils, who, under the service of their great liege master, never disagree and quarrel: from this terrible unity keep us, O God of heaven!...The destruction of every sort of union which is not based on truth, is a preliminary to the edification of the unity of the Spirit." - Charles Spurgeon (The C.H. Spurgeon Collection [Albany, Oregon: AGES Software, 1998], The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 11, p. 3-4) [See Section on Ecumenism Also
Jesus and Division and God and World Peace]
"they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them....For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come." - Hebrews 11:16, 13:14 Am I a soldier of the cross? A foll'wer of the Lamb? And shall I fear to own His cause or blush to speak His name? Must I be carried to the skies on flow'ry beds of ease, While others fought to win the prize and sailed thru bloody seas? Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood? Is this vile world a friend to grace, to help me on to God? Sure I must fight if I would reign - increase my courage, Lord! I'll bear the toil, endure the pain, supported by Thy Word. (Isaac Watts, Am I a Soldier of the Cross?) |
Index to 
