Proven Principles Are Best

I John 2:24-26

It is interesting to note that in our current financial distress, the ten largest American banks are on the list of the one most likely to fail, yet they are the ones giving the highest bonuses to their chairmen. They control over eighty percent of all the accounts in the United States. The strongest banks control only a small percentage of the deposits, required and accepted no bailouts, and have shown smaller but consistent profits throughout the financial trouble.

The troubled banks, like many other businesses have developed new and supposedly more profitable ways of doing business, while the solid banks have continued to do business in the ways that have made banks money for centuries. They are not exciting, and do not offer spectacular gains, and are ignored by most investors. Many survived the Depression, with their only significant losses coming during the period when Roosevelt declared the banking holiday and forced them to shut down their operations.

By sticking to principles that have been proven over hundreds of years, they have been able to avoid most of the difficulties. John advises believers to take a similar approach to being Christian. They should focus on what they know to be true, and allow the Holy Spirit to work in them.

“Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.” (I John 2:24-26)

Many banks were convinced to guarantee huge loans to major corporations for a modest fee. What they didn’t check out was that the same guarantee could be bought from several banks. Thus making it far more profitable for the lender if the corporation defaulted, as each bank would be required to pay the full balance. By canceling lines of credit or increasing interest fees, many corporations were forced to default, putting the banks who guaranteed the loans in jeopardy. They had been seduced by the promise of high and seemingly low risk profits.

Christians are often seduced with promises of great spiritual attainments or greater physical blessing and go for new and exciting ideas. Paul warned Timothy, “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;” in II Timothy 3:13-14. If we stick with what we know is the Word of God, we may not appear as exciting, but we will be pleasing to God. The church at Sardis, described in Revelation 3:1-6 probably best describes the tendency.

Just before Paul went to Jerusalem and was arrested, he warned the Ephesian leaders, “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them,” in Acts 20:29-30. Similar warnings are found throughout the Gospels, Paul’s other writings, and Peter’s.

Peter was concerned about the need to remember what we have learned in II Peter 2:12-15. “Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.”

Paul stressed that he wasn’t writing some new thing in his different letters, but trying to protect them, in Philippians 3:1. “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.”

II Timothy 3 warns of the attitude in the last days. It reads like a commentator speaking of today. As we see the hundreds of books and popular speakers promising different ways of attaining spiritual power, Paul’s comment in II Timothy 3:7 is so very applicable of modern “Christianity. They are “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”