In 1 Timothy 3:15 Paul refers to the church as \u201cthe pillar and support of the truth.\u201d One of the church\u2019s biggest roles is to uphold truth against wave after wave of attack from all sides. <\/p>\n\n\n
Since truth is of God (John 3:33, John 14:6), who is better positioned to uphold and proclaim the church than us, His church? Certainly not the universities, the government, or the news media. Philosophers have been trying (and failing in the end) to find ultimate truth for millennia. Pop culture isn\u2019t going to give it to us. If truth is from God, we\u2019re the only hope the world has to set the record straight.<\/p>\n\n\n
It only makes sense, then, that one of Satan\u2019s biggest efforts would go toward getting the church to compromise on truth. <\/p>\n\n\n
Our strategy against this challenge can not only be to deflect and shoot down lies. We are to go on offense by \u201cdeclaring the whole counsel of God\u201d (Acts 20:27). To quote the old sports adage, “the best defense is a good offense.” Declaring the whole counsel means clearly delineating what we are for<\/em>. Once we know what we stand for, we already know everything we\u2019re against. <\/p>\n\n\n If we stand for God\u2019s definition of marriage, we\u2019re automatically against fornication, cohabitation, adultery, divorce, and all manner of LGBT issues. If we stand for God\u2019s definition of gender roles, we\u2019re automatically against the insanity surrounding transgenderism, and also feminism, and egalitarianism. If we stand for God\u2019s truths on justice and racism, we\u2019re automatically against both racial discrimination and worldly concepts of justice that only divide further. The list goes on…<\/p>\n\n\n However, if we don\u2019t insist on declaring the whole counsel, our views will be set by the world, one way or another. We\u2019ll either capitulate to popular opinion when we receive pushback, or we\u2019ll get overly focused on the day\u2019s hot-button issues, letting the world set the frame and leaving us weak elsewhere. We might speak against gay marriage, but over-emphasis there might leave the door open for compromise on, say, divorce. <\/p>\n\n\n Additionally, when the world \u201cwins\u201d a battle and their idea is universally accepted, it\u2019s all too easy for us to find a way to accept it too rather than stand against it. Most of us can clearly point out the lunacy of the gender debate happening today. But we long ago capitulated to the world\u2019s framework for gender roles in the home. \u201cIf mama ain\u2019t happy, ain\u2019t nobody happy\u201d and \u201chappy wife, happy life\u201d ring a bell? Raising kids with gender neutral dreams and goals in life is basically standard, as well. We’ve ceded ground in ways we don’t even realize. <\/p>\n\n\n When we declare the whole counsel, we don\u2019t get ourselves into these messes. Be warned, though, the nearer you get to declaring the whole counsel of God, the more enemies you will make. This should not come as a surprise (see 2 Timothy 3:12).<\/p>\n\n\n This is why Paul emphasizes the importance of not \u201cshrinking\u201d or \u201ckeeping back\u201d any of God\u2019s counsel (Acts 20:20, 27). To do so is akin to a soldier retreating from the front lines rather than standing his ground. In more familiar imagery, it\u2019s like an offensive lineman curling up in the fetal position rather than blocking the oncoming linebacker. As kids, we called it “chickening out.”<\/p>\n\n\n Declaring the truth is hard, and shrinking back is easy. But to shrink back is to forfeit eternally valuable ground. As God’s chosen “pillar and support of the truth,” we can\u2019t afford to do that. We have to stand for the truth. If we don\u2019t, who will? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 1 Timothy 3:15 Paul refers to the church as \u201cthe pillar and support of the truth.\u201d One of the church\u2019s biggest roles is to uphold truth against wave after wave of attack from all sides. Since truth is of God (John 3:33, John 14:6), who is better positioned to uphold and proclaim the church […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28161,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,59,32,35],"tags":[664,23,333,110,1686],"class_list":["post-28155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-christian-living","category-church","category-culture","tag-courage","tag-jack","tag-preaching","tag-truth","tag-whole-counsel","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n