Church
Life
By
Stephen Terry
Commentary
for the September 8, 2012 Sabbath School Lesson
“…hold
on to what is good,” 1 Thessalonians 5:21, NIV
While walking through Riverfront Park recently in downtown
Spokane, I was approached by a young man and offered a one million dollar bill.
Knowing that the United States does not issue one million dollar bills, I
refused. I then discovered it was part of a marketing approach to attract
people’s attention to a presentation.
Today’s image is also obviously not true currency of the
United States. We have no three dollar bill in this country, and we do not have
any bills with a picture of Michael Jackson on them. It would be ridiculous for
a counterfeiter to make fake million dollar or three dollar bills. People would
not likely be fooled into accepting such bills as real money. A counterfeiter
does not counterfeit the fake, only the true. This means that even if we are
surrounded with a sea of counterfeits, their very existence is proof that the
genuine exists. We only need to seek it out, and when we find it, the Bible
tells us to hold on to it.
Governments take many measures to make it possible to
distinguish true currency from counterfeit. They want people to be able to
verify what they are holding is genuine. These measures invite testing because
true currency can stand up to the test. However, that which is not real is only
successful if it can somehow convince people that testing is not necessary. Often
this is done by appealing to simple human greed. By offering more than is
reasonable to expect, counterfeiters can convince people to forgo testing in
order to avoid missing the chance for gain.
For instance, in Vietnam during the Vietnam War,
criminals would sometimes approach the unsuspecting and offer them large
amounts of money for something they possessed that could be pawned. They would
show the money to verify the offer. If the offer was accepted, they would have
the person sign a paper to “authorize” the exchange and offer to wrap all the
bills into one roll for them. Then after the valuable had been surrendered and
the con artists were gone, the victim would open the roll to find the
equivalent of a few dollars of Vietnamese currency wrapped around dozens of
rolled up sheets of blank paper cut to the size of the currency. Had the victim
tested the currency by examining it before handing his item over, he might have
been spared the loss.
In spite of campaigns by public officials to promote the
saying “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t,” people continue
to lose millions of dollars to scams that promise big rewards. Those who don’t
fall for these scams sometimes pat themselves on the back that they are not
like their weak-minded fellows who do.
But aside from the problem of pride, some become so exceedingly afraid
of falling for these scams that they reject genuine opportunities that present
themselves. As an example, a local credit union offers 1/10th of one
percent interest per year on their savings accounts. This is almost equivalent
to making nothing or even less than nothing once inflation is accounted for.
Yet, because they are fearful of loss they do not pursue other options. While this
may be OK for some who are totally unable to understand their finances and have
no one whom they can trust to advise them, for most, they can easily discover
several reasonably secure methods to improve on this rate of return many fold. This is because even though there are so many
counterfeits offered, one can assume that there are genuine vehicles for
achieving one’s investment objectives. Otherwise, the counterfeits would have
no value.
As it is with the financial world, so it is with the
spiritual world as well. When we look around us, we see a plethora of denominations,
movements, and factions. Some of these are well-known churches. Some are
loose-knit organizations. Some are even factions within existing denominations.
Wherever they are found, they all compete for our attention and assert that
they have truth that cannot be found anywhere else. Some exist for the same
reason the financial counterfeiters do, solely to create a way into their
victim’s wallet or purse. Some exist to garner political power. Others exist
simply as a cover for a general licentiousness. But as with the financial con
artists, even if every denomination should prove false, they would still be
evidence that the true exists as well. Else there would be no reason to create
a counterfeit.
God could easily have told His people to avoid
everything because most of it is false, but He didn’t. If we did that we could
not exist here. As Paul said, “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate
with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who
are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would
have to leave this world.” 1 Corinthians 5:9-10, NIV instead we are told to
“Put everything to the test…” 1 Thessalonians 5:21a, CEV This implies that not
only is there a genuine that can be identified by testing, but also that there
are ways to test for truth in the spiritual world. Naturally, we would want to
know where we could find those testing standards if we do not want to fall prey
to spiritual counterfeiters.
Perhaps Paul’s advice to Timothy can guide us in the
right direction. He wrote, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and
is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16, NIV The Scripture Paul is referring to here is
what we call the Old Testament, today. The New Testament had not been gathered
into a single place yet, and much of it had not even been written by the time
Paul wrote this letter to Timothy. Apparently the early Christians saw the Old
Testament as a valuable resource to guide them in their understanding. They
were following the example of Jesus.
When Jesus was rejected as Messiah by the religious
leaders of His day, He also pointed to this Old Testament resource for
verifying what is true. He said, “You study the Scriptures diligently because
you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures
that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” John
5:39-40, NIV By saying this he endorsed
searching the Scriptures to identify truth, but for some reason it was not
working for these religious leaders. Perhaps it was because in searching the
Scriptures, they were not looking for truth but instead were seeking support
for their own opinions. When we do that, our minds are closed to discovering
anything we might not have expected to find. We limit ourselves by only
allowing consideration of things we already know and accept. While this may
seem safe, it is safe in the same sense as the safety the person has who keeps
their money in an account at 1/10th of one percent per year. Their
safety is only illusory due to the inroads of inflation. So the person who
closes their mind to any truth beyond their current understanding only has an
illusion of safety. When the Holy Spirit cannot enter in with anything new, it
must find another vessel that is open for growth. When that happens, the person
who is closed to the Spirit’s influence loses rather than gains.
Within Seventh-day Adventism, we have the example of
Hazen Foss and Ellen White. According to the Seventh-day Adventist
Encyclopedia, in their article on Hazen Foss, he was originally called to give
a message to God’s people in 1844, when he failed to do so, the vision was then
passed on to a more willing individual in the person of Ellen White. This is
similar to the experience of Paul. When preaching the gospel, he would begin in
the town’s synagogue, when they rejected the idea of anything new concerning
their understanding regarding the Messiah, he would leave the synagogue and
take the message to more receptive minds. The book of Acts contains multiple
examples of this.
We should not allow our desire for safety and security
to override our ability to receive what the Holy Spirit wants to pour into our
lives. We should seek an openness that makes that possible. Will this encourage
charlatans to take advantage of our openness? Probably. But with the Scriptures
as a safeguard, we can avoid being misled. We only need to read the Scriptures
daily like the Jews in Berea to have a foundation for testing what we are
receiving. (See Acts 17:11)
My personal experience with Scripture is that when I
read the Bible through over and over again, every time I do, God
shows me many things that I did not realize from previous readings. Some say
that is because the Bible is not dead but living. (See 1 Peter 1:23) In any
event, it speaks to not closing one’s mind to the leading of God when we read
the Bible as we seek to test the many so called “truths” in the secular and
spiritual world around us. It also tells us that in spite of needing to hold
fast to the truth, we should not hold so tightly to it that there is no
possibility for changes in understanding. The religious leaders of Israel made
that mistake two thousand years ago, and it caused them to miss the Messiah.
They were holding so fast to their inadequate understanding, they were like
children whose hands are so full of chocolate chip cookies they cannot accept a
cupcake when offered. Perhaps we should always make sure we have the ability to
grasp something new when the Holy Spirit offers it. Avoiding the misleading
messages of the charlatans, does not mean avoiding every new message. The Holy
Spirit will always have something new for us if we are only willing.
This Commentary is a Service of Still
Waters Ministry
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