Against The Grain

In terms of how I carry myself, conservative is typically how I see the world whether it’s how I handle money, how I vote, and how I see the world. Rarely do I ever splurge on a large purchase and I do believe that we get what we put in and marriage is between a man and a woman and is meant to be until death does them part.

Of course, I know this is not a perfect world and things are not always as they should be. Although I am a conservative and do approach things with such a mindset, I do not want people to label me as stuck in my way. Yes, I am a conservative but do not like to be labeled as a Republican as oftentimes, they are not much different than Democrats and while I am a conservative, I do not buy into the concept that there is one ultimate denomination.

When we think about the word conservative, we usually think about doing things a traditional way and for the most part, this is correct. However, what do we define as traditional and who decides what is traditional? For me, the best way to do this is to look within scripture and read what our Lord and Savior has to say about it. After all, He is the original conservative and we know this from John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In other words, God has always been here since the very beginning of time—not just time, space, and matter as we know it—and it’s His word and His ways that are the traditional ways of doing things.

When Christ walked this Earth, there were politicians and religious leaders that put forth rules and laws that were not necessarily Godly as they did not line up with scripture. On the Sabbath, there were very few thing that the religious rules allowed for the people to take part in and were infuriated with Christ when He did not abide by their rules including healing an injured man on the Sabbath: “And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him” (Matthew 12:10). Despite having such rule and laws, they did not stop Christ from “violating” their idea of the Sabbath and point out how scripture was misinterpreted then and how, even today, scripture is still being misinterpreted.

While Christ is the first conservative, He is also known as a rebel as He did not follow the legalism that was in place. What He did was go against the grain or, in other words, go against what the religious rules and the tradition they created stated. There were different times when the religious rulers wanted to imprison Christ but they knew that it would cause an uprising among the people because Christ was doing great works and miracle including healing the sick. After all, what just people would be upset at the great mercies of Christ especially those who call themselves religious but unfortunately, many within the church are still guilty, even two thousand years later, of the same mistake(s).

As Christians, we are to separate ourselves from the secular world and if the church is not preaching the right Gospel, we are to break away from the organization. When the Bible is not the center foundation of the church, we know that this church is not a real church of God. No, I am not speaking of disagreements with other churches but rather, not following the teachings of God’s word as the Bible is there not to just read but to follow even if that means going against the grain: “But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?”(Matthew 15:3). There will come a time and place for each of us to make an important decision: to go with the rule and laws of man even if they go against Gods’ word or follow Christ an stay with His word despite what it means.