Holding True, Whatever Comes

by David Gibson

What do new converts especially need to hear?

• Barnabas was sent to encourage the newly formed church in Antioch of Syria. “... when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord ...” (Acts 11:23 NASB).
• In Antioch of Pisidia, “many of the Jews and God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God” (Acts 13:43 NASB).
• In revisiting the congregations they had recently established, Paul and Barnabas were “strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, 'Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God'” (Acts 14:22 NASB).

These babes in Christ were urged:

• “with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord”
  “to continue in the grace of God”
• “to continue in the faith”

In view of the “many tribulations” ahead, these exhortations to hold true were exactly what these new disciples most needed to hear.

And so with us today

Newly-baptized believers are the most vulnerable (Matthew 13:20-22). Yet even we who have been in Christ for decades need these exhortations too.

Paul said of one of his coworkers, “... for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica” (II Timothy 4:10 NASB). Tragically, Demas let the powerful world-magnet pull his soul more strongly than the promises of God.

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever” (I John 2:15-17 NKJV).

So there we have it—we can either love the world or do the will of God. We can either cling to a perishing world or abide forever. We know what Demas chose. We know what Paul chose.

And each day we are choosing—what?