The New Always

The new manager of the office called all the employees into the conference room to lay out his goals for the coming year, and how he intended to accomplish these goals. This, as one might expect, involved changes in the way things had been done theretofore, and this, naturally, upset some of the employees. One individual in particular raised an objection, exclaiming, “But this isn’t the way we’ve always done things.” The new manager responded, “I understand, but from now on there ‘s going to be a new always.”

Human beings are creatures of habit, they say. Sometimes our habits are good for us, e.g., bathing every day, brushing our teeth after meals, etc. We want to establish these kinds of habits early on in life. They provide clear and obvious life-long benefits to us (and others who have to be around us!). Other habits, like smoking and profligate consumption of alcoholic beverages, although providing some immediate gratification, are habits we want to avoid getting, and in the event we do acquire them, it would, no doubt, be in our best long-term interest to get rid of them.

The above habits are the kinds of things we can easily pinpoint the onset of. There are, however, habits we have acquired of which the origin proves more difficult to identify. When confronted with why we carry on these types of habits the usual response is: “it’s just always been this way,” or “I’ve always done it this way.”

This proves to be particularly true when it comes to long held religious traditions. When I say “long held,” I am talking about habitual traditions that go back several generations, and sometimes can be centuries old. These are habits most folks don’t usually question, even though they have no reason for doing them other than, “we’ve always done it this way.”

When I was growing up we (our family) attended the local Methodist Church. I never questioned why we went to that particular church, it had just always been that way. It wasn’t until I was well into my adult years that I inquired into the matter, and discovered that my great, great grandfather, a Methodist circuit preacher, had established the church we attended. As far as I know, the tradition could have gone as far back as my ancestors who settled here from Europe.

The question is: is this a valid reason for continuing to go to the Methodist Church? No. There may be good reasons to be a Methodist, but that isn’t one of them. Here is why. In the Bible, in Paul’s letter to the Romans, it says:

“For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” Rom 14:11-12

Notice that it says, “every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” This isn’t a corporate or collective event, folks; this is an individual judgment. You and I will stand before Christ—i.e., those of us who claim Christ as our Lord and Savior—and give an account of what we believed and said and did with that belief—individually. When asked why we enjoined ourselves to such and such religion, or why we carried on the traditions of that religion; to respond with, “because that’s the way we always believed,” ain’t gonna fly! There is no “we” involved in this. It’s you and God at this event. There will be no one else there. Your mother, your father, your priest, your pastor, the church “fathers;” they won’t be there. Nor will you be able to excuse what you did and said by deferring to any of them.

If you’re still with me here, let’s explore how we can know whether or not what we believe and practice is in the will of God. In Paul’s second letter to Timothy he said: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”(2 Tim. 2:15) And in his first letter to the Corinthians he said: “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.”(1 Cor. 4:2)

Two things are established here: 1. God is interested in one thing from us: faithfulness, which raises the question: to what? To what he has charged us to do and not do in his word, “the word of truth.” And 2. In order to know where these orders are in his word, we must “rightly divide it.” What this means is this: Everything in the Bible is not written to us for obedience of faith. The Apostle says in his letter to the Romans:

“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith” (Romans 16:25,26)

In that second letter to Timothy, earlier in the same chapter, he exclaims: “Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.” (2 Tim. 2:7)

The key to laying hold of the truths in the Bible which are vital to you and I being “found faithful” is, therefore, to be found in what the Apostle Paul said concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. What he said has been preserved for us in his thirteen letters, Romans through Philemon. Once we lay hold of Paul’s gospel, we will obtain an understanding of what the rest of Scripture means, and how it relates to us.

Many believers in Paul’s day, primarily Jews and Gentile proselytes he preached to, were troubled by what he said, and rejected it. This was so because it was not in agreement with what they had “always” believed and practiced. In Acts 13, preaching in Antioch, he told them that the law of Moses could not justify them, and that anyone could be justified by simple belief (verses 38, 39). It made most of them so angry they chased him out of town. He was tampering with their tradition, and that was a no-no.

Has anything really changed since then? No. Folks today are still holding on to their traditions with a death grip, assailing and vilifying anyone who dares challenge their validity. What Paul said to those he preached to—and what he is saying today to us—is: I understand that this is what you’ve always believed, but what I am telling you is, there’s a new always, and from now on this is the way God divines everyone, everywhere to go.

The question to them and us is: are you willing to consider the “new always?” Are you willing to put your traditions under the rightly divided Scriptural microscope? Believe me, if you are a Christian, i.e., you are a member of Christ’s body, your reward or loss thereof—when you stand before your Lord and Savior on that day, to have your works judged—will be determined by whether or not you were in obedience to God, according to what he said to you in his word, not how faithful you were to the traditions of the religion you belonged to.

“And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.” (Col. 3:23-25)

Mike Schroeder

All Scripture quotations are from the King James Bible. Feel free to re-print and distribute this article.

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