November 16, 2024

"God's Standards Haven't Changed"

During a recent visit with us, a longtime friend who is an experienced seamstress was going to do some alterations on some of my wife’s apparel. When she requested a tape measure, I was informed that she didn’t need the retractable type I had in my tool box. Instead my wife found the more flexible cloth kind that tailors tend to use. As she handed it over to our friend, they commented about how old it was. However, they also noted that it would still work fine. Why? Because the standards haven’t changed. No matter how old that tape measure was, an inch is still an inch, a foot is still a foot, and a yard is still a yard.

We need to remember that when it comes to God’s Word too. His standards have not changed. The Bible is not an outdated piece of literature with little value in our modern world. While our society and its ideas are constantly changing, the Word of God is eternal. It may have been around for a long time, but it has not become obsolete. “Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven” (Psalm 119:89). “The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever” (Psalm 119:160).

It is true that we have to discern the portions of the Bible that were intended to be applied solely to a particular nation or circumstance. While it is all true, not all of it is meant to be universally applied to all people at all times. However, much of it is. Let’s not be guilty of allowing our preferences or our society’s opinions to cause us to make false claims about what is or isn’t divine truth which God still expects us to adhere to and live by today. Sin is still sin. We are all condemned sinners apart from Christ. The way of salvation is still only through Jesus. And God’s standards of right and wrong, good and evil, holiness and ungodliness are still in place.

Let’s not treat God’s Word the way I see people treating houses on some of these shows my wife tunes in to that deal with buying and renovating homes. In some cases, cabinets and countertops may be in perfect shape and be functioning well, however people want to remove them because it is not the style or color they prefer, or it is simply what they consider to be out of date. It doesn’t fit in with what is currently considered fashionable.

There is much in the Bible that doesn’t fit in with what is currently deemed fashionable and acceptable in our modern world. However, unlike those houses, the Bible isn’t ours to reshape into a form that we find more pleasing or that meshes with our ideas of what is good. We are the ones who need to be reformed. In light of what God says, we may need to change. We may have to buck the current trends in thinking and social practices, and stand firm on what God has declared to be true. In a world that is saying that an inch is no longer an inch and is redefining good and evil, we need to continue to uphold God’s standard as still being valid. If our friend didn’t believe an inch was still an inch and tried to sew my wife’s clothing accordingly, she might have made a mess, leaving my wife with unusable items of various shapes and sizes. Similarly, I believe we today are seeing how confused and messy a society can get when we forsake God’s standards.

God’s Word hasn’t changed. It never will. And it doesn’t need to change. Therefore let’s alter our way of thinking and our lives to get in alignment with it.