JESUS-FOLLOWERS ARE CALLED to live a holy life—a life set apart for God. This is despite the forces and desires of the world that surrounds us. We choose as an intentional path a life that desires outcomes of righteousness. The intended end result(s) of deliberately and positively chosen moral, civic, legal, and social choices should lead to pleasant intersections and interactions with like-minded and like-Spirited people, each of whom have a share and a vested interest in the zeitgeist of the community of faith. But this ideal must be forged and protected in the surrounding worldviews that are ever-competing for our mind-space, our heart-space, and even our lifeblood. So Jesus warns his disciples, and this includes you and me, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Be on your guard.” (Matt. 10:16-17a)
Keeping our faith is founded on the one singular aspect of our Christian worldview that separates it from every other way of interpreting and interacting with life’s experiences, and that is the person of the resurrected Jesus Christ. He is both our foundation and our finished hope. We believe Peter when he speaks this litmus test against the Sanhedrin powers arraigned in opposition to the fledging church of Jesus Christ: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
Guarding our faith is an imperative, for the entire weight of all other worldviews—systems of belief driving actions—is marshalled against us, as it was against Jesus’ early Apostles. Paul, extending the responsibility of generational faith, warns his acolyte and spiritual son, Timothy, to hold “on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith.” (1 Tim. 1:19)
Our faith is a precious thing, which Jesus says is like a “seed that sprouts and grows” (Mark 4:27), or “a treasure hidden in a field” (Matt.13:44), or “a pearl of great value.” (Matt. 13:46) The lessons from these similes is that there are opposing forces that endanger our faith, such as “the worries of life” (Matt. 13:22b), or the enemy who “came and sowed weeds among the wheat.” (Matt. 13:25) What we have we must recognize as something of great worth, like the merchant who valued the finest pearl and went and “sold everything he had to buy it.” (Matt. 13:46)
Faith is not an object that we can hold in our hand, but the outcomes are very tangible in the context of an authentic life guided by reckoned and reasoned belief. Peter says that God’s “divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” (2 Pet. 1:3). A genuine godly life is worth protecting at all cost. Never forget that there is an enemy of our souls, the thief—Ha-Satan—who “comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” (John 10:10a) This thief often shows up in the guise of flesh, and opposes our peace or our way. Proverbs says we must guard against these assaults, or have the power of our faith diminished or neutralized. “Like a muddied spring or a polluted well are the righteous who give way to the wicked.” (Prov. 25:26)
This analogy is not lost upon us. The devil’s warfare against our souls is akin to the actions of beasts trampling on and befouling a natural spring. The clean spring water is not only for the livestock, but for human consumption; how much more so the purity of source that is life-giving to our souls and our Spirit must be protected.
Our primary defense is to carefully guard this most precious ‘thing.’ And so the devoted Jesus-follower consistently listens for his assuring voice. “I give you eternal life, and you will never perish; no one will snatch you out of my hand.” (John 10:28) Any attempt to defeat this truth—any assault to diminish or destroy our faith—must contend against the all-sufficiency of Jesus to meet every challenge to our daily trials. Paul says, “in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.” (Col. 2:10) His protection is over us who believe in him, and his authority is over the enemy of our souls and the arch-enemy of God, for “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” (1 John 3:8)
Our part in keeping our faith precious, to God and as benefit not only to ourselves but to those we love and have filial responsibility for, is to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Cor. 10:5b) No matter what the trial of the day, Paul assures us that Jesus is all-sufficient to guide us and equip us for victory. He assures us that God “will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” (1 Cor. 10:13) And he adds, lest we question the strength of our own will, that we “can do all this through him who gives us strength.” (Phil. 4:13)
Jesus, through the legacy of the testimony of his chosen apostles, assures us of the intercession of God on our behalf throughout all the vicissitudes of life. Jude encourages us to “build yourselves up in your most holy faith, and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.” (Jude 1:20) Paul encourages us in this same way, reminding us that “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” (Rom. 8:26)
As we tend to our faith, so the Holy Spirit tenderly cares for us throughout all of our trials. And Peter confirms, “To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours: Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” (2 Pet. 1:1-2)
Q. If my faith were a jewel, would it be a semi-precious stone, or a diamond of highest grade?
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