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Philippians 4:5,
"Let your moderation be known to
all men. The Lord is at hand."
This morning, the world is not
moderate in any
respect. They do everything to
the extremist measures
that are allowable at the time.
The reason that each
generation gets worse and worse
(by Biblical prophecy)
is that there is a lack of
moderation. Each
generation pushes the bounds
further and further.
Unfortunately, this bound
pushing does not end with the
world, but it has started
affecting the church as
well.
Obviously, there are some things
that the Bible will
allow NO tolerance for. These
things cannot be done
moderately, for they are
abominations. Such examples
would be fornication, adultery,
murder, etc. However,
Paul exhorts the Lord's people
to be moderate. Often,
there are two very opposite
views that will plague the
Lord's church. Each view is in
the ditch, and the true
answer lies on the road in
between. For example, if
someone tried to say that all
the Lord's people will
hear, receive, and convert to
the gospel, that is
obviously one of the ditches.
However, to claim that
all the cases of salvation
taught in the Holy Writ are
timely contexts
would be the opposite ditch.
We must
be moderate in our applications
of many things.
Sometimes, dogmatic statements
lead to more confusion
than edification, and such
things are not profitable. I
am reminded of a quote by C.S. Lewis, "Quite often,
the devil sends errors into
people's lives in pairs of
opposites. He trusts that your
hatred of one will
lead you into the other." May we
ever let our
moderation be known unto our
brethren and not become
so hard-nosed that we strain at
a gnat and swallow a
camel.
In Hope,
Bro Philip
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