Beware of Cheap Imitations

You’ve seen them. You may laugh at them. You may even hate them.

 

They are 60 second spots of a pitchman trying to sell you something you don’t need that performs some task you never knew needed to be done. The items are not available in stores and they only cost $19.95 plus shipping and handling.

The part I like is when they remind you to, “Beware of cheap imitations.”

 

Today’s reading is Galatians 1:1-10. There were religious leaders telling Christians that Christ died for their sins, but they still had to follow the Laws Moses gave them to be saved and go to heaven. Paul corrects this teaching and reminds the Galatians that faith in Christ is all that is necessary for eternal life in heaven. Paul tells us, “There is no other Gospel.”

 

We have the same problem today.

 

There are religious leaders who forget their job of proclaiming Christ and take up some cause with the goal of creating heaven on earth. Sin permeates this earth so heaven on earth is impossible. Further, we cannot remove sin by taking up some cause. Sin can only be removed by faith in Jesus Christ.

 

Some politicians like to quote the Bible, and many for their own personal gain. For years some political leaders have told us collectivism (the removal of private property; the state, or the collection of all people, owning everything) will bring us a better world.

 

Ignoring the fact that God wants people to own and manage certain properties, collectivism is very shortsighted. The only thing that can give us a better world is Christ. Only he can take us from our current situation to a better world, and that better world, of course, is heaven.

 

There are so many religious and political leaders. How do we know which ones are correct?

 

God provides us an answer. He has given us the Bible. We merely need to read the Bible and compare it to what our leaders are saying. If our leaders espouse something different than the Bible, then they are leading us away from Christ. These leaders are, in other words, cheap imitations. We may not be able to stop these leaders, but we can refocus our lives on Christ.

 

Eternal life is too precious. Beware of cheap imitations.