Heaven measures
people not by their bank
accounts, their personal
popularity ratings, or their
university degrees. Moral stature
alone counts.
After Paul
received a vision of Jesus Christ
that completely changed his life,
he said, “For me to live is
Christ.” Philippians 1:21.
Christianity, for him, consisted
not in rituals, forms and
ceremonies, projects, plans, and
programs but in
“Christ.” Paul, though
small in stature, cast a long
shadow across the centuries. He
“determined not to know any
thing … save Jesus Christ,
and him crucified” and to
preach Him “in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power.”
(1 Corinthians 2:2,4.)
Paul’s goal
should be ours. Christ likeness
should be our aim in life, Paul
said, “This one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are
behind, and reaching forth unto
those things which are before, I
press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God
in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:13,14.
As Christians we
have, trials and temptations,
difficulties and hardships,
interspersed with heart
satisfactions and holy joys.
However, all along, those who
have the Spirit of God will have
the inner assurance that they are
sons and daughters of God.
“For as many as are led by
the Spirit of God, they are sons
of God.” Romans 8:14.
The Spirit of God
will never led us into situations
that will overwhelm us. The
prophet Isaiah declared,
“When the enemy shall come
in like a flood, the Spirit of
the Lord shall lift up a standard
against him.” Isaiah 59:19.
Today the tidal wave of sin has
risen to flood stage, ready to
engulf the world, but this text
says that at such a time the
Spirit of the Lord will raise a
standard in opposition. Not by
compromising with sin nor by
lowering the standards of the
church to accommodate man in his
fallen state, but by exalting the
standard of the Spirit will Satan
be defeated.
The world presents
standards utterly unacceptable to
the Christian. Some people seem
to think that if they were
clever, they do not need to be
righteous. Their philosophy is,
If you are smart enough to get
away with it, anything is
alright.
Others feel that
they cannot go wrong if they go
along with the crowd. They pass
off their inconsistencies with a
glib “Everybody’s doing
it.” They defend their racy
language, smutty stories,
personality clashes, scanty
attire, immodest behavior, and
bold intemperance with an appeal
to “It’s the
fashion” or “I
don’t want to be an
oddball.” These fear what
others may think about them more
than what God thinks about them.
However, God expressly commands,
“Thou shalt not follow a
multitude to do evil.”
Exodus 23:2. Suppose everybody in
the world voted to keep Wednesday
as the Sabbath. Would that change
God? Can God be outvoted? Let the
Bible answer: “What if some
did not believe? Shall their
unbelief make the faith of God
without effect” God forbid:
yea, let God be true, but every
man a liar.” Romans 3:3,4.
What man thinks
does not count anyway, for God
measures His people. He is
measuring us now. Are we ready to
face the verdict of the judgment?
The word has gone forth,
“Rise, measure the temple of
God, and the altar, and them that
worship therein.” Revelation
11:1.
When the children
of Israel became
“chummy” with the
heathen peoples around them, they
began to clamor for a king
“that we … may be like
all the nations.” (1 Samuel
8:20.) Why were they so
infatuated with the governments
about them? It is a sociological
law that people tend to be like
whose company they enjoy.
When reprimanding
King Jehoshaphat, the Old
Testament prophet Jehu said,
“shouldest thou help the
ungodly, and love them that hate
the Lord?” 2 Chronicles
19:2.
No one will ever
be taller than his ideals as
expressed in his friendships. God
wants us to make Jesus Christ our
Friend and Pattern. When the
Spirit of God lifts a standard
against the enemy, He points us
to Jesus, for it is the
Spirit’s special work to
“glorify” our Lord.
(John 16:14.) “Looking unto
Jesus the author and finisher of
our faith” (Hebrews 12:2),
we will become more and more like
Him. The Spirit helps us develop
an image likeness of our Lord.
“We all, with open face
beholding as in a glass the glory
of the Lord, are changed into the
same image from glory to glory
even as by the Spirit of the
Lord.” 2 Corinthians 3:18.
