Council Grove Christian Church

11/13/25          
Servants of God,
 
“Biblical ethics is faith-and-life conformity to how God
in his word portrays the real world to the eyes of faith.”
-Dr. Mark Garcia
 
 “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” 
Acts 17:6
 
Christians are called to live ethically in a world that refuses to be sane. Recently, I read a line that has been thrashing around in my feeble mind: “Calling abortion healthcare is like saying human trafficking is free transportation.” How did America become a place where intelligent human beings can be so morally confused about reality? Killing an unborn human is something, but it is not healthcare for either the mother or her butchered baby.  Sex outside of marriage is something, but it is not love. Giving government handouts and creating dependency is something but it is not compassion. When politicians use crude and vulgar insults to belittle their opponents, it is something but it is not gracious speech.
 
Christians must immerse our minds in God’s word if we want to make sense of the world around us and calibrate our actions to honor the character of God.  If the heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm 19), then pondering their message is a worthy activity. If children are a heritage from the Lord (Psalm 127), then surely, they are worth treasuring. If all have sinned and need a savior (Romans 3:23), then Jesus must be proclaimed.  If Jesus is to have the preeminence in all things (Colossians 1), then certainly his character and nature revealed in the scripture is to be studied and valued above every other topic. The world will push against this but we must obey God rather than men.
 
 Sin is at its heart rebellion. God’s word brings life-giving instruction to human beings. When 1 John 3:4 teaches that sin is lawlessness it presupposes that there is a law to obey or violate. The Bible teaches that our transcendent God revealed His instruction for life (His law) to His people  the wilderness at Mount Sinai. Law involves rules, but it is far more than mindlessly obeying rules. In the New Covenant life the law of God is place into the mind and written on the heart of the believer (Hebrews 8:10). Sin is the irrational resistance to God’s gracious instruction for life. Sin is pushing on a door that is clearly marked “pull”.
 
Christian discipleship involves putting into practice the teachings of Jesus. The early believers were recognized as living and acting like Christ. In fact, in Antioch, they were labeled as “Christians” because their speech and behavior imaged Christ (the promised Messiah) into the pagan Greek world. The early believers were consumed with living a Christ-like life. Christians of our day could benefit from meditating on the simple beliefs and behaviors of the early church. These mostly ordinary folks lived out a Christ-saturated life in a very evil age. They bucked the ethical currents of their time and God richly blessed their faithfulness to our Lord’s great commission (Matthew 28:18-20).
 
We are living here and now in the providence of God. This is our time and place to be faithful to Jesus by living against the cultural tide. That is not easy. The saints who lived before us have left us the blueprint. They lived as salt and light in times and places more difficult than ours. They were accused of turning the world upside down (Acts 17:6). Would it not be an honor if future generations could say that of us? By the grace and to the glory of God, we must live for that kind of outcome.
Blessings,
 
Pastor John
Coram Deo