Run it by the Word

Over breakfast, a friend of mine who is single shared the counsel she received from an older married woman, who told her that the "gushy-gooeys" (her word) don't last, but it's the friendship you want in marriage.

I was all set to nod appreciatively when I remembered that these days I am making a concerted effort to let the Word of God judge the word of man. (You think Thoreau lived "intentionally.") So I stopped and said to my friend: "Does God say that about marriage?" We thought about it together and came up with the Song of Solomon as counter-evidence---unless you want to go with the far-fetched idea that God would play bait-and-switch on us.

Then I told her about how my brother and his wife are still in love after 33 years. I'm sure there are other examples, but you only need one, don't you. In fact, you don't even need one: "Let God be true, though every man a liar" (Romans 3:4). That is the challenge in a nutshell: against all the supposed data to the contrary, to stick to the Word of God.

If you cock your ear today, you will hear many things that people say---unexamined and unchallenged folk wisdom straight from the pit of hell (James 3:15). You will hear it on the street, and you will hear it between your ears while driving the car and folding the laundry. The opposition described in Galatians 5:16-17 is an active and continuous warfare in the spirit realm, not a formal principle. Deal with it as a formal principle (i.e., don't deal with it), and you will lose the war by forfeit.

God says, "Be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Romans 12:2). The mind is transformed as it aligns itself to God's Word, the only reliable touchstone. Take captive every renegade thought (2 Corinthians 10:5), run it by the Word, and watch out for well-meaning little old ladies.

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