adminThere is always a marker of who we are and to a large extent what we choose, who we spend time with and at times what we eat makes us who we are. In nine words, having altogether but eleven syllables, Saint Luke packs a world of universal truth: “Being let go, they went to their own company” (Acts 4:23). These words are simple yet very deep and revealing. They tell a full story about who these men were. Let us walk together as we discuss choices!
Every normal person has a “company,” however small, where one feels at home and to which one will return when one is tired of being alone. The important thing about a man is not where he goes when he is forced to go, but where he goes when he is free to go. The matter is about what you do by choice. The Apostles were sent to jail. It tells us very little about them since they went there against their will, but when they got out of jail and could go where they would they immediately went to the praying company. From this we learn a great deal about them. The choices of life, not the compulsions, reveal character.
A man is absent from church on Sunday morning. Where is he? If he is in a hospital having his appendix removed his absence tells us nothing about him except that he is ill; but if he is out to watch a soccer match or out partying, that tells us a lot. To go to the hospital is compulsory; to go to the stadium or party is voluntary. The man is free to choose and he chooses to play instead of to pray. His choice reveal what kind of man he is. Choices always do.
The difference between a slave society and a free one lies in the number of free acts possible in each as compared with acts of compulsion. No society is wholly slave, as none is wholly free, but in a free society the voluntary choices are at a maximum and the acts of compulsion relatively few. In the slave society the proportions are exactly reversed. I am very glad that in the country we live in the heroes we celebrated created a free society for us to make the choices we like.
The true character of a people is revealed in the manner it utilises its freedoms. Slaves do what they are told because they are not free to do as they will. It is the free nation that reveals its character by its voluntary choices. They are free to destroy themselves by their choices, and many of them are doing just that. Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives. Choice not chance determines your destiny.
There is always danger that a free nation may imperil its freedom by a series of small choices destructive of that freedom. The liberty the fathers won through the shedding of blood the sons may toss away in prodigality and debilitating pleasures. Any nation which for an extended period puts pleasure before liberty is likely to lose the liberty it misused.
In the space between yes and no there is a lifetime. It is the difference between the path you chose to walk in and the one you left behind. It is the gap between who you thought you could be and who you really are. That choice between yes and no is the legroom for the lies or truth you will tell yourself in the future.
In the realm of religion right choices are critically important. If we Protestant Christians would retain our freedom we dare not abuse it, and it is always to abuse freedom when we choose the easy way rather than the harder but better way. The casual indifference with which millions of Protestants view their God-blessed religious liberty is ominous. Being let go they go on weekends to the gigs, to binges, to the games, to play pool etc. They go where their heart is and come back to the praying company only when the bad weather drives them in. Let this continue long enough and evangelical Protestantism will be ripe for a take-over by Rome.
The Christian gospel is a message of freedom through grace and we must stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. But what shall we do with our freedom? The Apostle Paul grieved that some of the believers of his day took advantage of their freedom and indulged the flesh in the name of Christian liberty. They threw off discipline, scorned obedience and made gods of their own bellies. It is not difficult to decide which company such as these belonged to. They revealed it by the company they kept.
Our choices reveal what kind of persons we are, but there is another side to the coin. We may by our choices also determine what kind of persons we will become. We humans are not only in a state of being, we are in a state of becoming; we are on a slow spiral moving gradually up or down. Here we move not singly but in companies, and we are drawn to these companies by the attraction of similarity.
I think it might be well for us to check our spiritual condition occasionally by the simple test of compatibility. When we are free to go, where do we go? In what company do we feel most at home? Where do our thoughts turn when they are free to turn where they will? When the pressure of work or business or school has temporarily lifted and we are able to think of what we will instead of what we must, what do we think of then?
The answer to these questions may tell us more about ourselves than we can comfortably accept.
But we had better face up to things. When a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man. To say we have no choice is to run away from our responsibility! Just keep asking yourself “What would Jesus not do?”
Shalom!
Online Reporter