As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord,
so walk ye in Him: Rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as
ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy
and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world,
and not after Christ. Colossians,
Chapter 2: 6-8.
I’m not to get caught up in counterproductive philosophical discussions with other people regarding my faith. There have been times when I have done this and I began to doubt my own faith or became uncertain about particular issues.
I have found that when I read the Bible, so many
things are clarified for me in a way that no person was able to do. I know these answers come from God and are
not some person or group’s philosophical interpretation of the Bible. My faith becomes vulnerable when I let other
people tell me what I should and shouldn't believe and how I should do it.
It’s kind of like a painting. You spend hours creating a painting and it’s
just right for you. You show it to some
friends and they tell you that you should change the painting in a particular
way. You show the painting to an artist
and he tells you that you should really change these other aspects of the
painting. Lastly, you show the painting
to an art teacher. He tells you that the
painting really should be altered in some totally new way. By the time you ask all of these different
people’s advice, you can’t remember why you painted the painting in that
particular fashion and what your original goals for the painting were. Your mind is so muddled by all these
interpretations of the right way to paint that the painting doesn’t seem like
the same painting you felt excited about in the beginning.
As an artist, I have found it’s much better when I
don’t ask for other people’s opinions and I paint for my own pleasure. As a Christian, I have found I can’t get
involved in other people’s philosophical discussions of how they think religion
is supposed to be. There are millions of
different people with millions of different interpretations. If I get caught up in listening to other
people’s opinions, I can get confused and possibly lose my focus on God. I find it much better to bow out of
philosophical discussions and read the Bible on my own and to trust the
instincts that God gives me.
Because this is an example of how I've applied this Bible passage to my life, it doesn't necessarily reflect the whole meaning of the passage.
This is a connection I've
made from this Bible passage. Please share your connections.
