Get Back To Basics!

Think about this for a moment. Eighty-seven year-old Sister Mabel had been a member of the same local church for 60 years. One Sunday she limped up to the preacher who was shaking people out after the morning service. He knew from the look on her face that she had something on her mind and she was going to let him know what it was. "Preacher," she said, "if God were alive today, He would be shocked at the changes in this church." We can be sure Sister Mabel was wrong on one point – God is not dead! In the words of the apostle Paul at 1 Timothy 3:15 the God who disclosed Himself to mankind through His Son Jesus Christ is "the living God." Seven hundred years before Paul lived the prophet Isaiah assured God’s Old Testament people God was alive and well even though they faced difficulty, referring to God as, "The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth" who "Neither faints nor is weary ..." (Isaiah 40:28). People out-side of Christ are "dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1). Women (and men should be included in this, too) who live in and for pleasure and self-indulgence are said to be "dead while [they] live" (1 Timothy 5:6). Churches can be dead, and Jesus Himself made that sobering pronouncement about the church in Sardis in Revelation 3:1, saying to them, "I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead." Yep, spiritually speaking there are a lot of dead people and dead members of the church and even dead congregations. Millions have pronounced God dead – but in every age He just keeps on outliving His critics! God is forevermore the living God.

Let us return to 1 Timothy 3:15 where the apostle Paul spells out his reason for writing the letter of 1 Timothy – "but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct your- self in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." The NIV makes clear Timothy was not misbehaving, but Paul wanted him to know "how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household." The church at Ephesus found herself floating in a sea of false and erroneous religious beliefs and practices (see Acts 19 * 1 Timothy 1:3ff). The polluted water of that sea was threatening to seep into the church. Precisely for that reason Paul urged the church to stay focused on her fundamental and primary task – be a "pillar and ground of the truth." Whatever else the church is called to do, her function as a bastion and bulwark for God’s truth remains primary. The truth contained in the gospel is a sacred trust. We must never forget that fundamental task. Coach Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers football team was famous for winning games and championships. They did so because they knew how to tackle, block, and execute. In one game they didn’t do it very well. A frustrated Lombardi stood before the team, held up a football, and announced, "Gentlemen, this is a football." He was calling them back to the basics, reminding them of the urgent nature of fundamentals. No matter what else a church has going for it, the key to enjoying God’s favor is to remain faithful as a pillar and ground of the truth. Are you concerned about that basic task? Well, are you? Just asking. 

          – Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN