Amidst an angry mob, the Roman proconsul took pity on such a gentle old man and urged Polycarp to proclaim, “Caesar is Lord”. If only Polycarp would make this declaration and offer a small pinch of incense to Caesar’s statue he would escape torture and death. To this Polycarp responded, “Eighty-six years I have served Christ, and He never did me any wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?” Steadfast in his stand for Christ, Polycarp refused to compromise his beliefs, and thus, was burned alive at the stake.
The ends does not justify the means. We are called to be faithful to God alone. To trust Him with the results.
We live for Him.
We live because of Him.
1 John 2:6 says, “the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
Sin is NEVER the solution. Jesus confronted sin, He did not sweep it under a rug. Christians, we are accountable for our actions and our inaction.
James 4:17 says, “Therefore, to the one that knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin.”
So Christian, when you step out and do something contrary to the very nature of God. Or stand back and simply go along with what you know is contrary to the will and character of God, do not fool yourself by thinking that God is in someway obligated to bless, honor, or finish that which He did not start.
How pathetic that we Christians would prefer to do what we know is wrong and then hide behind the grace Jesus suffered and died to give, rather than living a life worthy of the Gospel by which we were called.
Even worse. Doing it in His name.
May it never be.
We are accountable to more than just “the end.”
We are accountable to the walk.
Paul wrote, “Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”
(1 Corinthians 9:26 and 27)
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