Beware the Fat
by Richard Kauffman
After I retired, I worked part-time for eighteen months in a grocery store’s meat department. I know how sausage is made. And I’m aware that cardiologists warn us about eating sausage because of the fat, but it’s the fat that makes sausage taste so good.
If only that were the true about the fat Congress mixes in the sausage it passes. The fat has nothing to do with the legislation’s original purpose but wins the favor of members whose constituencies’ special interests are included.
Tragically, the same kind of thing occurs in some parts of Christendom whose churches participate in what they call ecumenism. They are willing to overlook the nonbiblical beliefs of others in exchange for theirs being accepted. All in the name of unity!
If you consult a good English dictionary for the meaning of the adjective “ecumenical,” you will discover something interesting. That word is derived from the Greek word “oikoumenikos,” which literally means “of the world.”
Here’s an important question for every believer: “What kind of unity do we have with the world?”
In John 15:19 Jesus said to his disciples, “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”
Our Lord told them that belief in him and his word would divide even families. He said in Luke 12:53, “The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
Our basis for unity must be belief in Jesus alone and what Paul declared in 2 Timothy 3:16 is God’s inspired scripture which is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness.
Beware the Fat
by Richard Kauffman
After I retired, I worked part-time for eighteen months in a grocery store’s meat department. I know how sausage is made. And I’m aware that cardiologists warn us about eating sausage because of the fat, but it’s the fat that makes sausage taste so good.
If only that were the true about the fat Congress mixes in the sausage it passes. The fat has nothing to do with the legislation’s original purpose but wins the favor of members whose constituencies’ special interests are included.
Tragically, the same kind of thing occurs in some parts of Christendom whose churches participate in what they call ecumenism. They are willing to overlook the nonbiblical beliefs of others in exchange for theirs being accepted. All in the name of unity!
If you consult a good English dictionary for the meaning of the adjective “ecumenical,” you will discover something interesting. That word is derived from the Greek word “oikoumenikos,” which literally means “of the world.”
Here’s an important question for every believer: “What kind of unity do we have with the world?”
In John 15:19 Jesus said to his disciples, “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”
Our Lord told them that belief in him and his word would divide even families. He said in Luke 12:53, “The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
Our basis for unity must be belief in Jesus alone and what Paul declared in 2 Timothy 3:16 is God’s inspired scripture which is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness.
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