Don’t Get Carried Away
Peter says, “take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.” Peter may have been thinking about the time he was deceived and deceiving others about the Gentiles. He was carried away into sinful thinking and behavior until Paul confronted him.
Never happens to any of us, right?
Yes. It does. How do we know we have been carried away with the error, the lies, of the lawless? We lose our stability. We are blown about by every wind of doctrine that comes whistling down through the corridors of culture. We begin to say things like, “It really doesn’t matter which God you believe in, as long as you are sincere.” Or, “Isn’t church an institution that has outlived its usefulness? I don’t really need the church, right? I can just follow Jesus on my own.” Or, “I believe in science; it is really the only thing in the world that is reliable.” Or, “Because of all the suffering in the world, God is either not all loving or he is not all powerful, and therefore I cannot trust him.” These questions are not new; they have all been around for a long time, and each are errors of lawless people that Peter warns us about. By the way, a great resource that does an excellent job with some of these questions and others I didn’t mention is Rebecca McLaughlin’s book, Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion. We worked through the teen version a few years ago in a morning class here at Antioch: Ten Questions Every Teen Should Ask (and Answer) About Christianity.
Peter says to the stable Christian, take care that you do not lose your stability! And I would say to parents that it is especially important that you are settled in what you believe because you have children watching you every day, and their stability will at least be influenced by yours. It’s like that warning we always hear on the airplane: “In case there is a loss in cabin pressure, yellow oxygen masks will deploy from the ceiling compartment located above you.” And they always say that if you are traveling with children, “please secure your own mask before assisting others around you.” Secure your own faith so that you can assist those around you. If you get carried away with the error of people who have rejected the truth of God’s Word, you also put your children and others who watch your faith at risk.
Harrison Butker is a kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs who has helped them win three Super Bowls. Some of you have heard about the firestorm surrounding his commencement address he gave last week at Benedictine College. The remark that caused the longest applause at the commencement and the greatest protest in the nation afterward were these, directed to the female graduates: “Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world…I’m beyond blessed with the many talents God has given me, but it cannot be overstated that all of my success is made possible because a girl I met in band class back in middle school would convert to the faith, become my wife, and embrace one of the most important titles of all: homemaker.”
Cancel culture was firing on all cylinders as people around the country called for this man to be fired for saying these things. Here’s the question we have to answer. Does the Bible elevate or denigrate the office of homemaker? Elevate! That certainly does not mean a woman cannot have a career outside the home. But it also does not mean she has to in order to find meaningful purpose in her life. Being a homemaker is not just a career, it is a calling.
Peter would say to all who want to cave to the lies of the culture, “take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people.”