THE QUESTION OF WALKING TOGETHER
(Part 2)
Amos 3:3
Morning Meditation 7/4/16
Verse 3 says, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” As I said in yesterday’s meditation, the answer to that question is an obvious no. And I dealt with our walk with God. Today I want to deal with walking with one another. If two cannot walk together except they are in agreement, then what do we have to agree on. It is obvious that there are things that we can disagree on and still walk together as believers. The ideal is that all believers would agree on everything. This is a fantasy however. It will not happen in this world, at least until the millennium.. So, what are some of the things that will put us together in our walk in this world right now? What I will say in this meditation will be very general and will leave out things that you think should be included. I apologize in the very start. To develop a subject like this in detail would take volumes and would be contrary to the intent of these daily meditations. So I will limit this to a very brief statement of the very elemental things of agreement.
There must be agreement on the origin and authority of the Bible. The Bible makes certain claims for itself: 2 Tim. 3:16-17 says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” The word “inspiration” means “God breathed.” Peter puts it this way: “. . . holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” The word “moved” (phero) means “borne, or ferried along.” It is a present passive participle. The passive voice means that the “holy men of God” (the subjects) were acted upon. So it means that the Holy Spirit acted upon the holy men of God and as He did these men were “borne along” by Him in the writing of the Word of God. Paul is saying that God breathed into the writers of the Bible his Words. It is like when we breathe in, we breathe in oxygen. When we breathe out, we exhale carbon dioxide. When the men of God breathed in, they breathed in the Word of God. When they exhaled, they wrote down God’s Words.
Paul says in 2 Thess. 2:13: “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” Paul is commending the Christians in Thessalonica for accepting the Bible as the very Word of God.
This is primary. The reason for this is that all that we believe is abased on the revelation that we receive in the Scriptures. What is our basis for believing in the Virgin Birth of Christ? Because Matthew 1:23 says it. What is our basis for believing in the deity of Christ? Because the Bible says it: “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory” (1 Tim. 3:16).
This is the reason for the controversy over the inerrancy of the Scriptures. Any time someone who calls himself a Christian and publicly states that he does not believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, he is going to be challenged. It will happen every time. Because Bible believing Christians know that we have no authority for any of our beliefs apart from the authority of God’s Word. All of our beliefs are based on the FACT that the Bible IS the Word of God and we are to believe and even die for its teachings. Amos says, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” There must be agreement that the Bible is the Word of God for true Christians to walk together.
Next, there must be agreement on what it takes to be a Christian. There is no way a believer who believes that salvation is by grace alone, in Christ alone, by faith alone, to walk with someone who professes to be saved who believes in salvation by works. You see, they do not even agree on how you get to heaven. What one believes that is necessary to get him to heaven is what he is depending on. If you believe your good works save, then you are not depending on Christ alone. If one is not depending on Christ alone, he is not saved.
Paul says in Roman 11:6 that salvation either has to be all of grace or all of works. The idea of one destroys the idea of the other as a means of salvation: “And if by grace, then it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it nor more grace: otherwise work is no more work.” You can’t get much plainer than that. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” There are a lot of difficult passages in the Bible that all of us have problems with. But not on the subject of how you get to heaven. If you are wrong on that, you have either lost your mind since you have been saved or you are just not saved. You cannot go to heaven by grace believing works is what gets you there. Amos asks, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” The answer is no.. There must be agreement on how one gets to heaven for the true Christian to walk with another who professes to be a Christian.
Next, there must be agreement on the basic articles of faith. You say, “I’m a Christian, I believe the Bible.” That is good. But what do you believe it says about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the plan of salvation, the inspiration of the Scriptures, the Church, etc. The Church through the ages has found it necessary to write out articles of faith so that we can know what the other believes the Bible to teach on the various subjects. These articles of faith sometimes called Confession of faith, dealt with the basic things.. Luke 1:1 says, “Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us.” Even when Luke wrote, there were some things that needed to be stated about “things which are most surely believed among us.” Jude said chapter 1:3 “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” The word “contend” (epagonizomai) is the word used of athletic contests and the struggle and effort of the athletes in their games. This means that one is not just going to sit passively by and while someone who professes to be a Christian denies the very faith he professes to believe. Amos says, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” There can be no walking together as believers if we can’t agree on the very basics that I am mentioning here.
Now let me say one other thing. I am not speaking about the News Media or Cults or the unsaved of this world. I do not expect them to believe the Bible. I am not at all disturbed that they deny that the Bible is the Word of God. It does not disturb me at all that they completely miss it on what it takes to be a Christian. I am not the least bit surprised that they make fun of our articles of faith, i.e., the Virgin Birth, the literal resurrection, the Trinity, etc. But when someone comes along and professes to be a Christian and denies these things, I will not identify with him as a Christian, in fact, I will not admit that they are Christians at all. If we walk together, there must be agreement on the basic things.
May God bless you.
In Christ
Bro. White
