Stand and Hold Firmly

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

STAND AND HOLD FIRMLY

1 Cor 15:1-2

15:1 Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

NIV

It is imperative that we take our stand on the truth of the gospel, otherwise whatever we believe is in vain. We must hold firmly to the gospel, not letting go of it, not allowing it to be either diluted or polluted. It is possible it can be diluted by false teaching and preaching. When Jesus crucified, buried, resurrected, and ascended is not part of the story, then it has become diluted. When being saved is related to being a good person, the gospel has been diluted. When it is not mentioned that to even see the kingdom, much less enter it, and we have to be born again, when that is left out, the gospel has been diluted. There is so much truth regarding the gospel and we have to hold firmly to this truth. If we want the Lord to forgive us our sins, and to be declared holy and blameless in his sight, we must forgive all who have ever sinned against us, in any way whatsoever. If we do not then perhaps, we are believing in vain. There is so much that is contained in the truth because of the gospel, we would have to quote almost the entire New Testament. If we fail to love everyone as Christ loves us, then just maybe we are believing in vain. Then there is the pollution of the traditions of men. Oh how good we are at making up our own set of rules and regulations or denominational requirements, that are either a gross misunderstanding of scripture or a flat out misrepresentation of scripture. Jesus talked about how the Pharisees and teachers of the Law had abandoned the truth for their traditions. We cannot allow this to happen, yet it seems we may be guilty of allowing some traditions to creep into the truth of the gospel. It is clear to see traditions versus the truth because the truth never changes, the gospel is always the same, but traditions change with time, or change according to the changing culture or social climate. What was prohibited fifty years ago by either a dilution or pollution of the gospel is acceptable today thus those things taught or preached were not the truth but rather simply traditions of men. If we have done that over the past fifty or hundred years then what is to say we have not or are still not looking at traditions rather than truth and thus are believing in vain. Certainly, this was the case in Corinth, and they had only been believers for a short time. The church was still young, and it had already been subject to being diluted and polluted. Our post-modern Church has been at it for over two thousand years and we have gone through many changes because of either dilution or pollution of the gospel. So, we must shed off the traditions of men, and turn our backs on the false teachings and hold on to the truth no matter what. We must take our stand for the gospel and only the gospel, so our believing is not in vain.