Called to Take a Bold StandSample

Standing in Grounded Truth

Fighting for the faith is not the exclusive domain of pastors and ministries. It is God’s mandate for the church as a whole and every Christian individually.

The call to contend for the faith requires the determination of wrestlers engaged in a match. Some believers are very uncomfortable with contending, others see it as optional, and today, still more question its necessity. Yet Scripture gives ample reasons to contend for our faith, with the primary one being false teaching. Jesus said many false prophets would arise before He returned (Matthew 24:11). Our English word translated as “arise” is an understatement. It makes the situation sound less critical than it is. The Greek translation says not a few, meaning a vast number of false teachers will permeate the landscape of the last days. It implies a coming drought of truth because of the false teachers and their doctrines that are on their way. I urge you to take a good look around. They are already here.

I have heard it said that the best defense against false teaching is true living. I say, “Amen to that!” A church filled with growing Christians, strong in faith, is unlikely to fall prey to counterfeit Christianity. But that presupposes that the Christians build their lives on the authoritative Word of God. Christians who rely on experience, at the expense of truth, find themselves in dangerous territory. False teachers cunningly target people who shun solid Bible learning in favor of experiences. And when you add the temptation of worldly alternatives, it’s no wonder that Jude and other New Testament writers felt compelled to remind us of the essentials concerning our faith again and again and again. We need the reinforcement of biblical truth!

I want to reiterate that I am not condemning experiences—truth and experience are inseparable. Faith founded upon Christ and His Word ought to result in experiences, but depending on experiences to mold and shape our faith is wrong. Never allow experiences to dictate what you believe to be true because your experiences might not always align with the Bible. We should view experiences—the practical working out of God’s Word—as exclamation points at the end of truth statements such as Isaiah 26:3, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You because he trusts in You” (NKJV). I love that there exists an internal self-correcting feature built into the revelation of Scripture wherein the Bible judges all things, especially our experiences.

As tempting as it might be to scrutinize someone else’s faith, we should examine ourselves by asking this essential question: “Is my faith grounded in biblical truth?”