The Standard
Ephesians 4:11-14
11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
I recently had some work done on my vehicle. We all know that vehicle repair can be costly. I'm sure many of us have wondered why it took a mechanic 30 minutes to change something and they charge us for four hours of work. The basic premise is that they use a guide book. Let's say that you need your starter changed like I did. The mechanic has a book that tells him how many hours it should take to change the starter. If it is two hours he can not charge you for four hours worth of labor. If he does it in 30 minutes because he didn't have any problems then he still gets paid for two hours. If it takes him five then he is just working overtime without extra pay. The labor guide protects the customer. Without it there would be no way to say how much a shop should charge and unethical people could take advantage of you.
The same is true with the word of God. Unfortunately there are many people who teach all kinds of things in the name of Christianity that are not Christian principles. We are humans and therfore we are subject to error. But thankfully there is a Guidebook. We all know it as the Holy Bible. It tells us what Jesus taught and what his apostles taught after him. If we are ever in doubt about any teaching then we can go to the book and find the answers that we need.
This book teaches us to respect authority. It teaches us to honour the king and reverence our pastors. Yet it also teaches us to try every spirit and doctrine to make sure it is in line with God's word. The one is not in conflict with the other. We just have to understand that God's word is always the final authority. In the everchanging world in which we live sometimes nothing seems secure. People we thought we could have faith in let us down. Factories close down and we find ourselves without a job. Loved ones pass on and we feel the loss.
Yet there is one thing that is secure. Psalm 119:89 says "Forever, oh Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." God's word is never changing. Jesus is always as close as the mention of his name. Do you need something solid in your life. Try Jesus- he will never change!
