Articles
Tried And True
There is an old saying of unknown origin, but one you may have heard before: "Tried and true." The meaning of the phrase is that something has been "tested and found to be reliable or workable." If we seek something "tried and true," we are looking for something proven to work, not something untested or questionable.
In spiritual matters, I would hope everyone would want something tried and true, and not entrust their soul and eternal destination to something unproven or questionable. The problem is, how do we know what is true unless it has been tested? Far too many people believe some doctrine or system of faith that has not been tested against God's revealed and written word, the Bible, and are counting on it being true in the end, without ever having tested it! Friends and brethren, that is not faith; that is wishful thinking! Do we really know that what we believe is true, or are we merely taking someone else's word for it? Is what we believe tried and true, or untested and/or false? Shouldn't we care?
If you doubted the accuracy of a small measure, you could obtain a ruler or measuring tape and check it. If you doubted the volume of a liquid measure, you could use a container known to be equal to the disputed or doubtful amount, and check it. These standards of measure give us assurance that what we are told is true, or prove it to be in error, if the standard shows that to be the case. But what do we do if we find what we have believed doesn't match the standard of God's word?
There is a story about a man whose father owned and ran a fabric store in the small town where he grew up. He personally handled each customer's purchase and made a point of measuring out the cloth for each one and talking with everyone. The whole town knew him as a friendly and pleasant man, and no one had a bad experience with him in all the years he did business there.
Unfortunately, the man's father passed away suddenly and, in the interest of keeping the store going, the son took over his father's place and, like his father, dealt with each customer personally, measuring out the cloth himself. Quite by accident, he noticed something didn't seem right to him as he measured out the cloth for a customer one day, and after the sale, and with no one else around, he took out a measuring tape and stretched it across the table where his father had measured and cut yards and yards of cloth over several decades. To his surprise and disappointment, he found that the measure on the table was short of a yard by about half an inch. He was shocked, to say the least.
But the man then started to think about it: Was this intentional? Was it a mistake? Did his father even know? He decided he couldn't make that judgment, especially since his father couldn't answer for himself. But what to do now? Should he change it and make it the correct length? What would that say about his father if he corrected it?
The man decided, "I will change it and make it right. I don't know if my father knew the error, but I know what he would do if he knew what I now know! Right is right!" So he changed it. He knew that possibly years of a mistaken measurement was no excuse for continuing in error. Whether his father knew or not was irrelevant; right was right.
Now, what will we do if we pick up God's standard in spiritual matters — the Bible — and we find that what we have done all of our lives, and maybe even what our parents have done and believed all their lives, is wrong? What will we do? Will we make excuses? Will we say, "If I change, then that means my parents were wrong"? Let's admit the truth that this man understood: If we change, or if we don't change, it doesn't affect the truth of the matter. That measurement his father used for decades would have been wrong if the son changed, or if he didn't. Continuing in error would not justify the father!
Someone once said, "When an honest man finds he is in error, he will do one of two things: He will either stop following the error, or he will stop being honest." The fact is, we will demonstrate a love for the truth if we discover we are in error, and change; we will demonstrate we have no love for the truth if we find we are in error and refuse to change — and it doesn't matter our excuse.
Error has long existed — just about as long as truth has existed. The devil introduced a lie in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:4, 5), and has been using lies to spread spiritual deception and destruction ever since. In the first century, immediately after the critics of Jesus heard of His resurrection, they told a lie in the hope it would halt the truth from spreading and prevent any more people from following Him (Matt. 28:11-15). Lies have been told to convince people the speaker is of God, when he was not, but we must know who is behind it all (cf. 2 Cor. 11:14, 15). Many false teachers have gone out into the world, so we must not simply accept what they say without testing each one against the written word of God (1 John 4:1).
Let us also open our eyes up to the reality that many of the spiritual deceptions are a part of elaborate schemes and centuries-old traditions, based on human creeds that did not originate with God. Try telling someone who follows a religious denomination that has been around several centuries and they will look at you with shock and confusion. "Are you telling me millions of people have been deceived?" they will ask. Some will put it in the form of a exclamatory statement, saying, "I can't believe so many people would follow something wrong for so long!" And statements and utter disbelief like this are said even after they have read the Bible for themselves and compared it to what they know these religious organizations believe and teach! In my experience, even reading God's word with their own eyes cannot convince some to abandon error.
But if you have a love for the truth, a love for God, and a love for Jesus Christ, you must be willing to follow Him wherever that may take you — and leave behind whatever and whomever you must. Jesus said plainly, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matt. 10:37, 38). No matter how much we love our parents, grandparents, husband, wife, or children, if we seek forgiveness and eternal life, we must love Jesus more than any and all others.
Jesus would also say, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). He would also say, “Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matt. 7:21-23). Saying we love Jesus is not enough; we must do what He has said!
If it is salvation you seek, use the tried and true method: the teachings of our Lord and Savior. The creeds of men will fail you in the end, and your lineage is not the path to heaven. —— Steven Harper
