Applied Truth

In John 17:17 Jesus said "Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth." He is praying for the disciples and for us as believers. There is a very practical and key truth for us in this passage. Jesus knows that our lives will be without any real power unless we are being sanctified by God's word. But before this can happen, we have to learn that this great, vital truth, is something that must of necessity be constantly applied by us, and that the application of the truth is as important as the truth itself.

There is no value at all in having an intellectual awareness of the truth unless we proceed to apply it, and there are many who fail at that point. It is a sad commentary on the church today that there are so few that have even an intellectual awareness of the truth, much less the ability to apply it to all areas of life. This is the essence of having a biblical worldview. Its almost extinct except in a very small remnant of the church.

Think about what Paul was writing in Romans 6. This chapter came after a long discussion of justification by faith alone, not by works. He knew that because of our evil tendencies, we could misconstrue justification by faith alone. That we might sway ourselves over to the idea that once we were saved it did not matter whether we were obedient to the teaching of the Bible on how to live and think. Its the idea that we have our insurance policy now so we can live any way we want to.

How prevalent is this in the church today? Its called antinomianism and its rampant in the church. Given that Barna's surveys show that only between 7 and 9 percent of people in America hold to a minimal Christian biblical worldview, that is that our faith is to effect every area of life; politics, education, economics, religion, and societal matters; it is clear Paul's concern was well founded.

Think about this: does God hate sin? Of course he does. He sent his Son to die for you to pay the price for your sin. Sin has a very real cost. God didn't just decide one day to forgive and ignore the sin in the world. His justice demanded payment for the sin. Jesus paid that price for us. How can we think that any sin, before or after we are a Christian, isn't a big deal? Its rebellion against God. The antinomian doesn't take sin seriously after having been "saved." And unfortunately many Christians are unrepentant in the fact that they don't take seriously the idea that it is sin not to apply the Bible to every area of our lives.

It is clear that antinomianism is rebellion towards God. He calls us to apply the biblical truth we learn in our lives. Sanctification is not optional, its required. And if its required, we are required to acquire the knowledge of God that we might grow in every area of our lives. Just as Paul went on to say later at Romans 12:2 "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

Spend your time learning the truths and principles God gave us in his word. Then make every effort to apply them in your life. Knowledge or truth without application is rebellion towards God. Let's be transformed by the renewing of our minds as we learn to apply God's word to every area of our lives that we might bring all things under him and fulfill our dominion mandate, the purpose for which we are here, so that our lives will bring glory to our Lord.