Are our principles true?
An American statesman, Stephen Decatur said, “Our country! May she always be right; but our country, right or wrong.”
We should never put our country, our family, or even our principles ahead of the Truth. Bro. Dennis Gillett in his book, The Genius of Discipleship said, “Sometimes men are more anxious about being true to their principles than to ask whether their principles are true.”
We think of the tribe of Benjamin who fought to the death to defend a group of wicked men who raped and killed a young wife. They put loyalty to their brethren ahead of what was right. They defended the indefensible. They were wrong. They paid dearly for that tragic mistake.
Have we ever been guilty of misplaced loyalty? Jesus reminds us that we must not put even our families ahead of him, yet it does happen. The old saying that “blood is thicker than water” is often quoted to justify standing by a loved one who is wrong against perhaps a stranger who is right.
Bro. Gillett goes on to say, “Sometimes men for the love of another would do a sinful thing or a mean thing. Would we for love of kindred, perhaps in a crisis, be disloyal to Christ and his cause? And if we would at one time, would we now? By these kinds of questions, asked and answered honestly, we may be able to discern the development of holiness in our own lives.”
A great amount of good can be accomplished and a great amount of harm avoided if only we will make sure that our principles are true. We should never be willing to be true to our principles if they are not true principles.
A sad example of loyalty to false principles is when those who hold wrong beliefs refuse to change them because they follow the lyrics of the old song that says, “gimme that ol’ time religion, it’s good enough for me.” It isn’t good enough, unless it is right. Being wrong, even sincerely wrong, is never good enough.
Are we willing to stand up for the truth against all comers? It was Moses who asked the question at the incident of the golden calf, “Who is on the LORD’s side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.” Being on the Lord’s side meant they had to “put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.”
To slay brethren and neighbors was no doubt very painful but it is always right to put the Lord ahead of everyone and everything in our lives. If He is not first in our lives, it matters not where He ranks. He will not accept second or third place.
Paul asks us a question we all need to answer prayerfully and we need to come up with the very same answer he gives. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulations, or distress or persecutions, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One