January, 2012

Back to the Beginning

by Tom McLemore

Another year begins, and what better way to begin the new year than to reflect upon significant beginnings emphasized in the New Testament. New Testament beginnings represent the setting of vital standards and reminders of fundamental values and truths, and getting off to a fresh start is enhanced by considering them.

A determination to improve our marriages and homes calls for a look back to the beginning. Jesus’ teaching on marriage recognizes the propriety of what God first established. He asked, “Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female?’” (Matthew 19:4; || Mark 10:6). He said to them, “It was because you were so hard‑hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so” (Matthew 19:8). Paul also pointed husbands and wives back to the beginning (Ephesians 5:31). Take the time regularly to revisit the story of God's creation of marriage and the principles and values the Scriptures assert on the basis thereof.

A resolve to live as disciples of Jesus directs us back to “the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). Discipleship demands careful and faithful study of the activities of Christ “just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word” (Luke 1:2; cf. John 15:27; Acts 1:22). The New Testament reminds us that the one who is the subject of this good news is divine and already existed in the beginning. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1, 2; cf. Hebrews 1:10; 7:3; 1 John 1:1; 2:13, 14). The reading and study of the entire Bible is a recommended discipline that will bolster faith in Christ. Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, Jesus interpreted to his disciples the things about himself in all the Scriptures (Luke 24:47). The gospel provides the information we need “about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning” (Acts 1:1). Christ must ever be the focus, as he is “the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything” (Colossians 1:18; cf. Revelation 21:6; 22:13).

Serious commitment to Christ requires that we never once lose sight of the objective and character of our enemy, which have not changed since the beginning. Jesus declared that the devil “was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). “Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

As a prime directive for living, we may concentrate on the most fundamental commandment of Christ. As John orients us, he writes, “Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word that you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says, ‘I am in the light,’ while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates another believer is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness” (1 John 2:7‑11). “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father” (1 John 2:24). “For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another” (1 John 3:11; see also 2 John 5, 6).

As we more deeply commit ourselves to being the church of Christ, we will give serious attention to the mission Jesus set for his disciples at the first, namely, “...that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47). As we call the religious world to return to the primitive scriptural way, we join the early Christians who looked back to the beginning of the church (Acts 11:14). Whether it be the honorable goals and plans which the congregation adopts for functioning as the body of Christ in today's world, including goals for giving and involvement, or the on‑going pursuit of Christ‑likeness, let us persevere without wavering. Paul had urged “...Titus that, as he had already made a beginning, so he should also complete this generous undertaking...” (2 Corinthians 8:6). With a focus upon New Testament beginnings, let us begin this new year with resolves and commitments to Christ that we will complete as the year progresses.

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