From Moveable to Unmoveable

Right now at this campground, we’re living in temporary dwellings, and they are quite moveable, as we saw during the storm last night. But back home I have a house that is built on the rock—a concrete foundation with rebar and hurricane ties to hold it to the ground—and through every kind of weather it has experienced so far it has remained unmoveable.

In a similar way, the Lord wants us to have stability in our spiritual lives. “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.”* (Ephesians 4:14) You can convince little children of many things—they are naturally believing and trusting, and they can be easily moved, easily persuaded, easily deceived. The Lord does not want us to remain a child, He wants us to grow and mature.

I am not pointing out these issues this morning to use as a club, but to clearly show the goal, and so that we will be able to respond to these immaturities with the truth. God is trustworthy; you can trust what He says. Christ is not movable, and when you’re anchored to Him you can remain unmovable as well.

Romans 16:17-18 gives us this warning: “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.” There are those in the body of Christ who are simple, those who are easily deceived and moved by false teachers. If anyone among us—or even some part within any of us—is moveable, the Lord would have us to become so secured in Christ Jesus that we will be unmoved from the truth. Those brethren who are mature must be watchful to see the dangers and protect the flock, considering especially the needs of those that are weaker, more fragile.

God expects us to “warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak.”* (1 Thessalonians 5:14) We are to respond to different people in different ways. A few years ago we borrowed a full-grown ram. He was a sturdy fellow with a couple of horns, but when we needed to move him we could grab on and muscle him about. But a pregnant ewe at full term is another matter. If I want to move her somewhere else, I’m going to do so gently, or perhaps not even at all until after she’s given birth. And with brand new little lambs—when ours were born, it was snowing or raining, and I opened up my little shed to keep them dry and warm and comfortable, protecting them from dogs and coyotes and wolves. A ram could probably take on a coyote, for there are mature and equipped with strong necks and big old horns. (I’ve had one come at me before when I was a teenager. I thought I could take it. Ooogh!—they hit hard.) But these new little lambies, innocently bouncing around—they don’t know danger, they don’t know fear. The lambs in God’s flock must grow, learning to be watchful, to be discerning, to become established in Christ.

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”* (1 Corinthians 15:58) The Lord wants you and me to be more and more unmoveable in Christ.