I am a bit of a hoarder. My wife is good at discarding unwanted things, but I can see how those things might come in handy at some time. I have learned to pass things on, but I don’t give things up easily. Through life many things have a use for a while and then are discarded. Other things we once discarded are now antiques and quite valuable.
There are things we should always keep, because of their value or because we will need and appreciate them later. There are many intangible things we should keep too, like our commitments and our hold on truth.
The Bible instructs us to hold on to various things, even to hold them tightly. Certainly we should hold on to things that are good.
“Detest what is evil; cling to what is good.” Romans 12:9
“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” 1Thessalonians 5:21
The Bible identifies a problem called ‘drift’. As with a boat on a river, if we have an anchor, or hold the rope from the jetty we won’t drift away, but if we let go of the things we are meant to hold we can drift off the mark.
“We must give the more earnest attention to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.” Hebrews 2:1
There is also the possibility of things being taken from us, if we don’t hold them tightly. Our enemy, called a ‘thief’, comes to ‘steal, kill and destroy’. So if we don’t hold onto what we have we may find the enemy taking it from us.
“Behold, I come quickly: hold fast what you have, that no man take your crown.” Revelation 3:11
“The thief only comes to steal, kill and destroy.” John 10:10
The most important thing we have in life is our faith in Christ. What we believe is truly precious, as it puts us in relationship with God for eternity. So the devil likes to attack our faith and distract us with things that make us drift away from total reliance on Christ.
The Apostle Paul often talked of holding strongly to the gospel truth.
“He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it was taught, so that by sound teaching he can encourage others and refute those who contradict this message.” Titus 1:9
“Hold fast the form of sound words, which you heard from me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.” 2Timothy 1:13
“Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge.” 1Timothy 6:20
The Gospel message is very simple. Yet there are myriad other ideas, or adjustments to the message of Christ, that are intended to distract us and undermine our complete reliance on Christ.
The gospel message is that we are all sinners, condemned to eternal punishment. Jesus Christ, God’s Son, came and lived sinlessly, then died to pay for our sins. He rose from the dead showing that sin and death are conquered. When we acknowledge we are sinners, trusting in Christ for our salvation, making Him Lord of our lives, we are forgiven and adopted into God’s family. We then live in fellowship with God, with the blessing of the Holy Spirit in our lives, living for God’s purposes instead of our own, and obeying the things God calls us to do.
Vain ideas that reinterpret Christ, or justify our sin, or suggest we need something other than Christ to save us, or that we need Christ and other things such as correct approved beliefs or certain rituals to save us, or that once we are Christian we can do as we please, and so on, attack our simple trust in Christ.
New Age distractions, which offer special powers or special connections with the divine, take people away from simply trusting in Christ. Reliance on saints or angels, looking into supposedly special revelations outside the Bible, embracing ideas that don’t line up with the Bible, or imposing man’s thoughts on the Bible, are also things that cause us to let go of the truth.
We are told to ‘hold fast’ or Hold on Tight. We are to cling to that which is good and reject those tantalising things that are actually designed to pull us off course.
We are to guard and protect the simple gospel truth that saves our souls.
“We are not of those who draw back to destruction, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.” Hebrews 10:39
“By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.” 1Corinthians 15:2
“That good thing which was committed to you guard by the Holy Spirit which dwells in us.” 2 Timothy 1:14
So friends, let us treasure the simple gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and be sure to keep it dear and uncorrupted as we Hold on Tight.
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