Standing for Right
by Paul M. Tucker
Standing for the right is very demanding of us. It is not easy. It may be very inconvenient. It may even lead to loneliness. On the mountain peak of spiritual experience, it can be a lonely place; we may even find ourselves alone.
"At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me," wrote the embattled Apostle Paul, speaking possibly of his defense before the Roman court (II Timothy 4:16). He had no defensive legal counsel, there was no crowd of the faithful packing the courtroom to encourage him or plead his case. As a man, he stood alone. "Not withstanding the Lord stood with me," he wrote. There he stood in a hostile court with no comforting presence of sympathizers. But the Lord was there.
Abraham wandered and worshipped as a lonely leader of his family. Sodomite neighbors gave no credence to his righteous example. They followed the fashionable popular crowd into folly and flames. Lust and peer pressure led them to fiery destruction.
Daniel prayed alone, Elijah sacrificed alone, and Jeremiah wept alone. Jesus died on the cross alone, except for the company of two thieves.
The higher one climbs up the mountains of spiritual achievement, the more rarified the atmosphere and the crowd, and the more lonely one becomes, but the Lord stands by His own, with an invisible but powerful presence.
What we need in the church are men and women, young and old, who have the courage and the conviction to stand for the right (alone if necessary), at the cost of fame, fortune, and friends. We need congregations under the leadership of elders who will lead the congregation in the right direction, even if it means isolation from other congregations who are departing from the faith.
The powerful pressure of popular pride challenges us. Sins of all sorts are glamorized, glitterized, and glorified to appeal to fleshly folly. False doctrine, fancy fables, and changing alternative worship styles are made appealing to the worldly-minded. But the Lord stands by His own. With His help, we shall stand, and the wreath of victory will be ours.
In our search for worldly goods, we climb the highest mountains and toil across the hot sands of the desert, forgetting the words of the wise man Solomon, "The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it" (Proverbs 10:22).
