Tag: eternal life

Immortality

Carl Pollard

Immortality

“the ability to live forever, eternal life.” 

As a Christian, the gospel you believed is not mainly about escaping hell, it’s about entering eternal life. Immortality is the center of our hope. From the beginning, God formed us for eternal life. The Tree of Life stood in Eden as a sign. Humanity was meant to live, and to walk with God without end (Gen 2:9). Sin broke that design and brought the sentence of death (Gen 3:22-24). Death became the doorway through which grace would one day lead us back to life.

And grace has come. Jesus Christ, the Resurrection and the Life, has “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Tim 1:10). When He rose, He unveiled the firstfruits of a new humanity, bodies raised imperishable, souls made whole, creation set free (1 Cor 15:42-49; Rom 8:21). The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the down-payment on our own resurrection (Eph 1:13-14; Rom 8:11).

This is why the New Testament writers spoke with triumph. “Death is swallowed up in victory!” (1 Cor 15:54). The last enemy is defeated, not negotiated with.

What will this immortality feel like? Revelation gives us the clearest glimpse: God Himself will wipe away every tear. Death, mourning, crying, and pain will be former things, remembered no more (Rev 21:4). We will see His face (Rev 22:4). We will know as we are known (1 Cor 13:12). Every longing planted in us by the Creator, longings for beauty, for love, for purpose, for home, will be satisfied beyond imagination, yet never exhausted. Eternity will not be monotonous; it will be the ever-fresh discovery of the infinite God! 

The world groans, our bodies weaken, our hearts break, but none of it is the final word. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. And when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2).

Until that day, let this joy shape everything. Work without despair. Love without fear of loss. Suffer without bitterness. Give without calculation. The clock is broken, the future is secure. We are headed toward a life where sin cannot diminish us, death cannot touch us, and God will be our everlasting light.

This is the joy of immortality: not just that we will live forever, but that we will live forever with Him, fully alive and fully home.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Love=Help

Gary Pollard

At least in my lifetime, no period has been as uncertain and tense as the current one. We have no idea what will happen in the next few months. We’re not 100% confident that society will be at peace this time next year. Hatred, as defined in the New Testament, is already rearing its ugly head and will likely only grow exponentially in the coming months.  

If you’re reading this article, you’re probably a believer. First and foremost, we are not citizens of any country in this world. We have to be peaceful, beneficial citizens in whichever country we live, but we’re non-resident aliens regardless. We’re visiting for one purpose: to show the world how Jesus loves. 

John defines hatred and love very clearly in I John 3. Hatred (from μισει, misei) is not always defined as “harboring extreme resentment toward others”. Sometimes we catch ourselves before using the word “hate” to describe how we feel about someone, replacing it with “strongly dislike”. That’s still hatred, at least the way John uses the word. It seems to mean, in the context of I John, something like “not helping someone with their physical needs because of how we feel about them”. It means showing beneficial kindness to the brothers and sisters we like to the neglect of those we don’t. 

BDAG uses Deuteronomy 21.15-16 as an example of how this word could be understood. In that passage, a man has two wives. He likes one wife more than the other one, and he has sons with both wives. The oldest son happens to be from the wife he doesn’t like as much. When it’s time to divide his assets among his children, he can’t give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he likes more. Does this mean he “hates” his other wife? No — it just means he doesn’t like her as much as the other one, and he’s tempted to treat his firstborn with less favor because of it. 

The first part of I John 3 is all about not sinning and not hating our fellow believers. The second part is about practicing love for each other. The last part is about belonging to the truth and living in God. Sandwiched between these concepts is the definition of love and hatred: 

We understand what love is when we realize that Christ gave his life for us. That means we must give our lives for other believers. Now, suppose a person has enough to live on and notices another believer in need. How can God’s love be in that person if he doesn’t bother to help the other believer? Dear children, we must show love through actions that are sincere, not through empty words.

We don’t have to feel “strong dislike” for a believer to be considered hateful. We just have to neglect them because we don’t like them. Here’s the problem with that: Everyone who hates another believer is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life (3.15). 

We don’t know what the next few months will do to us. But we cannot mistreat or neglect a fellow believer because of how we feel about them. If we practice love, we have eternal life. If we practice apathy or neglect, we’ll have eternal death. What happens to us in this life is not important. We’re just waiting for Jesus to come back. If we want to leave this earth with him, we can’t let something temporal keep us from showing beneficial kindness to our fellow believers. 

We Have A Problem

Gary Pollard

Nearly every culture in history hoped for immortality or rebirth or “the transmigration of the soul.” This is evident in the myths and stories handed down for millennia. Ancient Egyptians believed in Duat, the terrifying world of departed souls. Here, among other tests, the departed soul must verify that they’ve not committed certain sins (theft, murder, deceit, adultery, blasphemy, and 39 others). If they passed all of these tests, they believed they’d be reborn among the stars of heaven. Many other ancient cultures had remarkably similar beliefs, but we won’t go into these for the sake of word count.

The point is that everyone desired new life. We have it already! Jesus came to this earth when every major culture had a well-established, fully-developed…problem. What do we do after we die? Just about everyone believed we’d go to “heaven” (among the stars), but their views of life-after-death varied somewhat. Jesus — God in human form — gave a solution to this very well-developed problem: Himself. 

We’re so far beyond this archaic conundrum. Colossians 3 tells us what God wants us to do now that we already have new life! 

  1. In 3.1-4, our new life means thinking about higher things. 
  2. In 3.5-9, our new life means getting rid of bad behaviors. 
  3. In 3.11-12, our new life means we have an identity that transcends cultural boundaries because our allegiance is to Jesus first. 
  4. In 3.12-17, our new life means we do everything we can to be at peace with each other and pursue a united spirit. 
  5. In 3.18-4.1, our new life means that we try to structure our homes and lifestyles in the most functional possible ways. 

Our new life is hidden in Jesus. We are already immoral, and death is just the pivotal moment when the “seed” of this body becomes the fully-developed “plant” of a new, immortal body (cf. I Cor 15). Jesus and his inspired writers beautifully and simply answered the millennia-old questions asked by every culture prior to his arrival. We will meet him in the air. He will rescue us when earth is destroyed. We will live with him forever in a perfect new world. No other religion so boldly answers these questions, another evidence of Christianity’s divine origin! 

“All Things Are Possible To Those Who Believe”

Carl Pollard

There’s a good chance you’ve probably heard this phrase before. While the sentiment is understandable, is this true? 

I believe a better way we could say this is, “All things are possible for God.” Whether we believe it or not, for God all things are possible! What I mean is that God blesses and uses those who will faithfully trust him, but our belief isn’t what makes things possible. It’s the One we choose to believe in who does that. I believe that Georgia is going to be the number one team this year, but not everyone will agree with me. 

So according to the phrase, “all things are possible to those who believe” whoever believes the most is the team that’s going to win…sadly that’s not how it works. All things are possible for God, but it doesn’t depend on our belief. 

This is one of those phrases that can ruin someone’s faith. If they believe and the desired outcome doesn’t happen, does that mean God doesn’t care? This is exactly what faith healers say. If someone isn’t healed, what is their response? “They didn’t have enough faith.” This isn’t what scripture tells us. 

This phrase comes from a wrong interpretation of Mark 10:27. Beginning in verse 24, it says:

“And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.””

For us to understand what Jesus is talking about we have to look at context. He’s not talking about a football game, or taking a test, He’s talking about entering the kingdom of God! Without God it would be impossible for us to enter Heaven and to have eternal life, but with God, all things (pertaining to our walk with Him and our journey to heaven) are possible. 

Thankfully we have a caring Father that wants nothing more than for us to succeed in our walk with Him. All things are possible WITH God. We should never forget what we can accomplish when He is in our life. But our greatest accomplishment is eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

Vindicated Faith

Gary Pollard

I Peter 1.5 — God’s power protects us because of our faith. If we’re doing our best to follow God, he’ll make sure we’re ready for the end. The Bible is vague on how he does this, but this verse might give the best glimpse into that process: his power keeps us ready. We’re told that none of this will happen in our current life. The exciting new life we’ll have won’t be available until the end. 

1.6 — Sounds like a bummer, especially since we might have to go through really hard times because of the unstoppable hope we have. 

1.7 — If we make it through these difficulties with our character and confidence intact, God considers that to be more valuable than refined gold. This is the best return-on-investment scenario in God’s eyes. 

1.7 — It benefits us, too, though — “when our faith is proven to be pure, the result will be praise and glory and honor when Jesus comes back.” Jesus will showcase his Christian family to the entire world. Millenia of mistreatment and hostility will melt away in an instant. All people throughout earth’s entire history will see how incredible Jesus and his family are. It’s the same terminology as the “glory” a country gets after they win a war. The U.S. stood on the global stage for decades as the most powerful country in world history. When Jesus returns — before we even get to our new home — Christians will experience that on a whole different level. For the first century church and for us today, that means absolute vindication. The world thinks we’re crazy or irrational for believing in an all-powerful God and living a Christian life on a promise we won’t even realize until after we’re dead. Jesus will personally prove them wrong when he comes back!

“The World” (1 John: Part 5)

Wednesday’s Column: Third’s Words

Gary Pollard

I’ll be repeating the book of I John in present-day terminology. It’s not a true translation of the book, as I am not qualified to do so. It will be based on an exegetical study of the book and will lean heavily on the SBL and UBS Greek New Testaments, as well as comparisons with other translations (ESV, NASB, NIV, ERV, NLT). My goal is to reflect the text accurately, and to highlight the intent of the author using concepts and vocabulary in common use today. 

This is not an “essentially literal” translation, and should be read as something of a commentary. 

The World (Cont.)

Anyone who denies that Jesus is the chosen king is a liar. Anyone who rejects the father and the son is an enemy of Jesus. Anyone who rejects Jesus rejects his father, too. 

But anyone who acknowledges Jesus partners with the father, too! It’s important that you stick to what you’ve heard from the start. If you do, you are partners with the son and the father. Through this message we’ve been promised eternal life. 

I’m writing to you because people are trying to deceive you. He chose you, and that stands – no one needs to teach you anymore about it. When he chose you, you learned everything you needed to know. His choosing you was legitimate, not a deception. Stick with him. 

Stick with him so that whenever he’s revealed, you can be confident. You don’t want to be disgraced when he comes back. If you know he’s morally perfect, then you really know that every person who practices moral excellence is his child.

Soul Food

Wednesday’s Column: Third’s Words

man with classes and beard smiling and wearing a ball cap.
Gary Pollard

When I get discouraged, I read a few specific verses. They will hopefully encourage you, too! 

Philippians 3.20f: But we are citizens of heaven, where the lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control. 

Romans 8.1-4: So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death…God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. In that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit. 

I Corinthians 15.51-53: But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies. 

II Corinthians 4.16ff: That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. 

II Corinthians 5.1-4: For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.

Plate full of food with turkey, dressing, vegetables, mashed potatoes

Keeping Eternity Nearby

Thursday’s Column: Captain’s Blog

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Carl Pollard

Eternity is a topic that many of us have heard taught many times. We have Sunday classes on eternity, and we hear sermons about heaven and hell. We learn about the life that comes after this one, but sometimes it doesn’t feel real. I’ve known about eternity for as long as I can remember, but I didn’t truly grasp this idea until later in my life. The extent of my knowledge was that heaven was where I wanted to go, and hell was for sinners. 

It didn’t seem very real. I found myself thinking, “I have my entire life ahead of me, I’ll worry about it later down the road.” I saw eternity like any other young guy. It was a place that I knew was coming in the future, but failed to live with this knowledge in mind. Lately I’ve noticed a few things that need to be said.

Eternity is so much more than what I believed it to be. It can be an eternity filled with life, or an eternity filled with torment. John 5:24 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” The Word of God has the ability to make our eternity be one that is filled with life and joy. But then we read verses like Romans 6:23 that say, “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this verse before, but I was failing to grasp what Paul is really saying. We deserved punishment. We were lost and consumed with sin, and we should’ve been punished for what we had done. Instead of punishing us or giving us what we deserved, God offered us eternal life. 

Paul describes eternal life as being a free gift. He uses the Greek word “charisma” which translated means “that which is freely and graciously given.” I have major trust issues when it comes to car dealerships. They say a bunch of words that they apparently don’t understand. Things like, “no interest” and “zero down” or “totally free.” But I have a hard time believing that something could be completely free with no strings attached. Eternal life was given to us. God wasn’t forced to do it. He wasn’t pressured into giving it, instead He chose to give it to us. No strings attached. 

In the church, some have failed to see eternity for what it is; a place that is very real. It is a place that everyone will end up going to. If we live with eternity in view, we will begin to focus on what is truly important. Living with eternity in mind gives us the clarity we need to make the right choices, knowing that our actions will impact our final destination. 

If we live with eternity in mind we will realize the importance of time. I’ve been preaching at the Hebron church of Christ in Grant, Alabama, for two years and it feels like I just moved here. Every year seems to slip away faster than the one before it. James 4:14 tells us that our life is a vapor. We weren’t meant to be here forever. When I was younger I failed to see how quickly life will pass by. Without eternity in mind we won’t see each day as an opportunity to share the Gospel or a chance to tell the world about a loving God that longs for everyone to be saved. We would find ourselves spending less time on the insignificant. 

As a teen I was horrified at the thought of hell. And while hell is still very real, the longer I live, the less I fear hell, and the more I long for heaven. I long for the day when I will be in the presence of God. I long for the day when God will give me a comfort and peace so powerful that it will completely remove all sorrow and pain. I long for heaven because I’ll never have to say a painful goodbye, but instead I’ll be with faithful and likeminded men and women for all eternity. The longer we live the more pain and heartache we go through. The stronger our desire becomes to be with God in that perfect home. 
Life has a way of changing our outlook on eternity. Let life’s issues be the motivation to reach eternity, and not the reason we lose eternal life. 

Life Illustrated 

Tuesday’s Column: Dale Mail

DaleandJanelledirectorypic

Dale Pollard

Contentment In Life 

As a young boy I can clearly remember the feelings I had in school. I was ready to be done with text books, math, science, and all the other trials and tribulations that I felt were too much for me to bear. I longed for the day when I could set my own bedtime, go where I wanted to go, spend money on whatever I wanted, and be looked at as an adult. I wish there was still a once-hated nap time scheduled in my daily life. My life, like many others, consisted of school and play, yet I looked forward to a future life that my young heart deemed better. It’s not better and it’s not worse— rather I’m just faced with new challenges that come with a new stage in life. We look forward to the future, and there’s nothing wrong with that as long as we are content with the present. Older couples will often state how fast the time has gone! Parents will look back on the years that flew by and always seem to ask the question, “Where did the time go?” Every hour was sixty seconds, every day was twenty four hours, and every year was a full three hundred and sixty five days. Our bodies run down, our hair turns gray, and our problems don’t end– they just differ from chapter to chapter. We are all living a vapor of a life, then off to eternity! When the dust settles over our caskets, when friends and family leave the cemetery, when they move on with their lives, what is left behind is our legacy and the impact we made. If life is a vapor and eternity is endless, our focus should be on the latter.

Endurance In Life 

Wilbur Wright was playing ice hockey as a young man when one of the players struck him in the mouth with his hockey stick. Wilbur Wright, who was known for being outgoing and articulate, had plans to teach at Yale college. The complications with his injury made him give up that dream and go into a depression. The man that gave him the injury was known as the neighborhood bully, and it is speculated that he did this to Wilbur on purpose. That bully later on became addicted to cocaine and eventually he was discovered to be a mass murderer. He killed sixteen people after reading the book Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde because he related to Mr. Hyde. Wilbur, despite an unfair and unplanned accident, went on to invent the first motorized airplane and change the world forever. Bad things happen to good people, but we have a choice on how we respond and what we chose to do next.

The Last Blink 

God created the world in 6 days. 144 hours. 8,640 minutes. 518,400 seconds. But He’ll come back and end it all in the blink of an eye. Just like that time is gone and everybody is sent into eternity. Though it’s a figure of speech, the average human can blink in 3/10ths of a second. God made “the blink” that quick so you could close your eye quickly enough to protect it from debris, bright bright light, and to illustrate for us the way He’ll return.

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Wilbur Wright (right)

CORONA VIRUS

Thursday’s Column: Captain’s Blog

carl pic

Carl Pollard

Now that I have your attention…
I want you to think about the furthest place you have ever traveled from home. For me, the furthest I have been is Cambodia which is approximately 9,320 miles from where I live in Alabama. There are a lot of places we could travel to that are very far away. There’s Africa, Asia, Russia or Antarctica, but there is one place in our relationship with God that is further than any place on earth.
Jesus, when he was talking about the final judgment in Matthew 25, tells of people who will be cast away from God. In verse 34,  He says there will be sheep on His right and tells us of the blessing they will receive– an eternal life with God. They received this because of their good works they did on earth and their willingness to follow God.
Verse 41 says, “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” This word “depart” is a very interesting word. It is the Greek word “poruomai,” which is described as, “go away [or to keep] walking the way you originally were headed.” These people have already made their choice. In life they were already headed for destruction. God just tells them to depart or to keep walking the way they had already chosen to walk.
This place is one of eternal separation from God. This is the farthest place we could be from our heavenly home. I know that no one wants to go to this place, yet sadly many are unknowingly drifting away from God. Some even choose to live a sinful life and are throwing away an eternity of perfection for a brief moment of pleasure.
The good news is that God is a God of love. He wants us to be with him, and we have the opportunity to repent and turn to God. As you’ve been reading this, I want you to think about the direction you are walking. Is it toward eternal life or an eternity of suffering?
walking on frozen lake

The World Is Desperate (Part Two)

Thursday’s Column: Captain’s Blog

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Carl Pollard

Last week we looked at how the world is desperate for guidance. They look in every direction for someone or something to tell them what to do. Most of the time they look to themselves for guidance and that leaves many things unsolved. Psalm 119 tells us what our guide should be. God’s word is what tells us how to live, how to act, and how to react in every situation. The world is desperate not only for guidance, but also for purpose (2 Pt. 1:3-8).

As Christians we can confidently say that we have purpose. There’s a reason to everything we do; but what about the world? Why do they wake up every day? For most, they wake up to go to work, to make money, serve self, and go to sleep.

To illustrate this, imagine going to the store without a grocery list. Without a list you end up forgetting most of the stuff you needed in the first place. You come back home and realize you forgot the milk. Without a purpose in life humans are lost. We go day to day knowing that there’s something we’re missing, but we don’t know what it is.

In 2 Peter 1, Peter is writing to them to encourage these Christians to confirm their Christianity. To be confident in their calling. Starting in verse 3 he says this,

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Because of God, we have a purpose in life. We have become partakers in eternal life. Because of this we must live a certain way. We have a goal. Peter gives us a list to build on: virtue, knowledge, self control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. If we are seeking for a purpose to life, work on this list and the end result is a knowledge of Christ that leads to eternal life.

We have escaped the corruption of the world, and now we have purpose. Peter was one who struggled with his purpose at first, he was unsure of Christ’s plan when he was on earth, and he didn’t even want to be associated with Christ after he was lead away to be crucified. He denied Christ, but after this we see his commitment and purpose in the book of Acts. His purpose is exactly like ours, he went around proclaiming Jesus and baptizing in His name. Not sure what your purpose is? Just look at how Peter lived his life, how he was committed to serving God.

My first job I ever had was when I was 13 years old. I built fences for a member at the Bear Valley Church of Christ. And talk about having no idea what you’re doing. For the longest time I’d show up every morning and have to ask how to do everything. I didn’t know how to mix concrete, how deep a fence post hole had to be dug, how to install gate hinges. I was clueless. For the average person, this is how they feel without Christ. They’re unsure, they have no purpose. Our job is to show them what life is about. This life is about getting ready for the next that is to come. Without this, we have nothing.

The world is desperate for purpose, so let’s show them the Truth.

sunlight_over_picket_fence

Why Travel The Road Less Taken?

Neal Pollard

Gunnar Garfors is the youngest “hobby traveler” to have visited every country in the world. He’s written a book about it, entitled 198: How I Ran Out Of Countries. I have not read the book, but his website offers a very interesting article on The 25 Least Visited Countries in the Whole Wide World. Guess which one is least visited. He tells us, statistically, it is Nauru, a Pacific island country with no capital and no armed forces. It is 8.1 square miles in size, having only 10,000 inhabitants. They have the world’s highest level of type 2 diabetes and the highest obesity rate in the world (97% of men and 93% of women are overweight or obese). It has no seaport and no daily news publications. Perhaps some or all of these factors lead this country to be most frequently avoided by travelers, but somebody has to own that distinction (read more here: Independent UK, BBC, and Gunnar Garfors).  Perhaps none of these facts inspire you to work to help Nauru lose its notorious tourism distinction.

Robert Frost wrote his famous poem about the two roads which diverged in a yellow wood. He took the one less traveled by, and that made all the difference.  It appears he may have actually stood before such a fork, but he used the experience to speak metaphorically. We can all appreciate this figurative choice. We must choose a path in life, and the one we choose does make all the difference!

Jesus uses such a metaphor to describe the way of life we choose on this earth. He says, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Mat. 7:13-14). In this familiar passage, He gives us multiple reasons why we should take His way.

  • Its aim (“leads to life”).
  • Its alternative (“leads to destruction”).
  • Its autonomy (it is a road each one chooses to “enter through”; it is not arbitrarily chosen for us).
  • Its assumption (one must choose between these two, and no other, ways).
  • Its accessibility (it can be “entered” and “found”).
  • Its attainability (Jesus says “few” find it and not “none” find it).
  • Its associability (one is not absolutely alone, for there are “few” rather than “none”).

Jesus compares our brief time on this earth with a road trip. We are not fated to stay on the broad way, but we are not unconditionally guaranteed a spot on the narrow road. As Frost surveyed the two paths and made his choice, so must we. Jesus says we make this decision daily (cf. Lk. 9:23). And our choices determine which path we are traveling. Be deliberate and prepared for this arduous journey that terminates all too quickly. The right choice is the one less taken and most avoided, but take it anyway!

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That’s the whole country of Nauru

The Origin Of Scruples

Neal Pollard

Wes Autrey gave me an incredibly cool book by Charles Earle Funk.  The title of it is, “Thereby Hangs A Tale.” The book divulges the origin of words in modern usage, a study known as etymology. The fascinating explanations of many of our words is virtually endless, but the origin of our word “scruples” is particularly interesting.  Apparently, the Romans were prone to get sharp pebbles in their sandals.  They called those “pointed bits of stone” scrupulus. Funk says, “It is easy to see how the uneasiness one would feel from a pebble in the sandal gave rise to the figurative use of scrupulus for an uneasiness of the mind” (254).  In time, scrupulous has come to mean “extreme caution and carefulness.”  Scruples are “a feeling of doubt or hesitation with regard to the morality or propriety of a course of action.”

There is a connection between scruples and conscience.  It is the conscience that informs our scruples.  Our sense of right and wrong determines our caution, care, and even hesitation when we are in a given situation.  How sharp our conscience is effects how scrupulous or unscrupulous we are.

The Bible does not use the word “scruples,” but the word “conscience” is mentioned 27 times in the New Testament alone. Some people’s conscience forbids them to do what may be acceptable (cf. 1 Cor. 8:7), but others’ consciences allow them to do what is forbidden (Acts 23:1; 1 Tim. 4:2). Thus, the goal is for us to properly train and adequately sharpen the conscience.

What helps in this process is growing close to God by communing with Him in Scripture, application of Scripture, and prayer.  As we walk the narrow way, we want to feel the pain of those “pebbles” that may keep us from finishing the journey.  Is this not the idea conveyed by the writer of Hebrews, who says, “Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1).  That rock in the shoe may be some ethical or moral practice that ultimately takes us off course.  Let us be careful to gauge the morality or propriety of any course of action, making sure it is in harmony with the goal of eternal life and not more likely to ultimately lead us away from God.