Phil Robertson may be the star of the top-rated show on cable TV, but he would rather be just a duck hunter. He once gave up a promising college football career because the games interfered with hunting season.
As a fellow hunter, I appreciate his priorities.
When you are a hunter, you have to know your prey, practice your aim, and always be ready for sudden opportunities. There is a time for patience, and a time to pull the trigger. Most of all, you have to know and trust your weapons.
The same is true for Christians. The one weapon we have is “the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17, ESV). We need to know God’s Word inside out, and we need to trust in its truth and power.
Nowadays, too many so-called Christians either don’t know or trust God’s Word. In their eyes, God’s laws seem outdated. His judgment is not to be feared. The devil can’t be real. Hell is not eternal.
That’s frightening and deadly. Jesus not only warns us repeatedly about hell, but He gave His life on the cross so that we might be free of sin and escape eternal death and damnation, if we trust Him as our Lord and Savior.
God hates sin just as absolutely as He loves us. Yet today we have Christians who wink at sin and tell unrepentant sinners that everything will be OK—while condemning Phil Robertson for taking a stand for the truth of God’s holy Word.
The only way they can justify this is by assuming that God’s Word has somehow changed, like the seasons turn or the centuries pass.
Times have certainly changed, but God’s Word has not.
The Prophet Isaiah tells us, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8).
God’s Word still means what it says. We all need to be prepared to stand in judgment before a holy God. The only way to prepare for that is to repent of your sins and trust Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
It breaks my heart to think that many churches will sidestep the truth, leading people astray in an effort to make them feel comfortable or welcome.
If these churches are not going to proclaim the whole truth of the Gospel, then it is all the more urgent for the rest of us to do so. This year, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has scheduled more than two dozen citywide Crusades as we strive to tell the whole world about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Like hunters, we have to always be vigilant, and ready to wield the weapon of the Word in our fight against the world, sin and temptation. Let’s rededicate ourselves to the Lord through prayer and Bible study so that we will always be ready to speak the truth in love. Christians, know your weapon.
©2014 BGEA
Scripture quotations taken by permission from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version.