Have you ever been behind someone who was swerving, and you pulled back a little because you were unsure what they would do? You wanted to pass them and scream, “Stay in your lane.” It is not an uncommon thing anymore. If it were about 20 years ago, you would call the police because you would assume they were intoxicated. However, now they are probably on a cell phone, not paying attention. These are drivers you don’t trust. You don’t know from one curve to the next what they will do. They are unstable because they allowed something besides their driving to take their attention.
Sometimes we, as Christians, are the same way as this swerving driver. Paul in Colossians 2:6-12 warns them to avoid anything that would cause them to swerve from the truth.
Colossians 2:6-12 “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye have risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.”
When we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are to walk as He would have us to. We are to study and become grounded in what the Bible teaches. We need to study scripture in its context to get the true meaning of a passage. Paul is reminding them of what he has taught them. He wants them to understand that Jesus is enough for them to be saved and have eternal life in Heaven one day. It is not about the traditions of man. While some traditions may be good, if they cause others to believe that keeping them is getting them to Heaven, we need to teach them to refute those ideas.
Man’s philosophy has ruined many who started out on the right path, but because they began to look inward and not upward, they sought “self-help” from those who knew nothing about following Christ. To our man-centered way of thinking, they may seem like logical ways to be a better person. No doubt, some of the logic may cause you to be a good person, but good people still die and go to Hell. Godly people go to Heaven. With Jesus, you can be both godly and good! Not because we can be complete in ourselves, but because with Him at the center of our lives, He can work through us.
Everything we need to stay on the straight path to eternal life is bound up in Christ. We have the written word for us to study and meditate. I call it God’s love letter to us. It was out of love that He sent His Son to die for us. (John 3:16) If we continue to study we can know the heart of God. We can understand how sin separates us from Him because He is Holy, and no defilement can enter Heaven.
Revelation 21:27 “And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
We are to “prove” all things. When you hear a teacher or a preacher you need to study what they are saying and study the scripture they are using. We are responsible for what we hear and how we use it in our lives. Note, we are also responsible for what we should have heard if we would have been listening.
I Thessalonians 5:21 “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”
We are to “walk” or conduct ourselves as Christ would. We are to be firmly grounded and “rooted” in the truth of the word. Those who want to proclaim they are Christians but never “study to show themselves approved” are in grave danger of making assumptions about what God says, and living a life that is in error of the word. If you’re not grounded in the truth, you can easily believe a lie.
Don’t be a Christian who swerves back and forth on the road to Heaven. God never intended us to make a wrong turn in our faith or take paths so far to the left or right that it distorts the truth. We need to be steadfast and unmovable on the truths of the gospel. Not adding to or taking away. Studying, praying, listening to good Biblical preachers, and following through on what we learn. We have one goal in life that trumps every other goal. It is to be like Christ!
While baptism, church membership, and church attendance are commands from God, they do not get you to Heaven. They are, however, outward extensions of what is on the inside. When Christ dwells within, we will want to be baptized as a show to all around us that we have been buried with Christ and risen to newness in Him. We will also want to be part of a body of believers where we can learn, grow, and have a community to help us in this walk. All of this is important, and we will one day stand before God and give an account for how we lived after we are saved, but they are not salvation!
Just like the driver who is swerving because of a distraction, we too need to pay attention, or we will be moving all over the place in our walk with Christ. So, don’t swerve, stay in your lane.
Matthew 7:14 “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
