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Richard’s Remarks: The “Against” and “For”
With my background in banking prior to preaching full time, I still find economics interesting. After all, my college degree was in business management with some emphasis on the economics side. (As a matter of fact, my first year in college was the first year that the “management” and “economics” degrees were separated from one another. They used to be combined as “business management and economics.” Even though they changed the title of the major the classes remained basically the same.) So, with these things being said, I still like to read some of those economic articles that most people probably find to be very boring.
In a recent article that I received via e-mail - “The End of The Inflation Scare?” by Louis Vincent Gave, June 30, 2008 - I discovered a very interesting statement. Of course, the statement in the article was made in the context of our current economy. Yet within the arena of religion it is also very important. Here’s the statement: “Whether you agree or disagree, you need to know why you hold a position. If you can't articulate the ‘against,’ how can you be sure you truly understand the ‘for’?” Now that is a very wise, helpful and useful statement!
You, like me, have encountered many people who hold strongly to specific religious beliefs. What surprises me is how many of them don’t have a reason for what they stand “against” and or “for.” They might strongly oppose something that you believe but truly don’t know why. We need to be careful within the church that we don’t follow a similar pattern. If we are “against” something we need to understand why. If we don’t understand the “against” how can we formulate a “for”? Let’s be sure that we have a “why” for each “against” and “for” that we hold - and most importantly, let’s base the “why” on God’s word.
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