"It Is High Time To Awake Out Of
Sleep"
Romans 13:11
The sleep here spoken of by Paul is A SHAMEFUL INDIFFERENCE TO
CHRIST,a spiritual callousness into which true believers sometimes fall. Yes,
men and women who truly love and trust Christ do sometimes,by their own sin and
neglect of him, become indifferent to him. The wise virgins, like the foolish,
are often found asleep (Matt. 25:1-13; Song of Sol. 5:2-3). And when they are
asleep it is impossible to tell the wise from the foolish.
ARE YOU ASLEEP? Have
you,like the
All the doctrines of
Christ are like roses on a bush.As long as they are on the bush, they are beautiful,
sweet to smell, blooming with life. But we are not content to leave them there.
We cut them, put them in our little vase, arrange them in an order that suits
us, set them on a shelf in our little room, and admire them. But soon they
wither, die, and begin to stink! So too the doctrines of Christ are beautiful,
sweet, blooming with life in Christ, but only as they are seen in him. It is
Christ we love,not his doctrine. He is altogether lovely, not his doctrine.
Christ is life, not his doctrine. It is Christ to whom we must look. It is
Christ who is our life. It is Christ who is beautiful, not his doctrine. I do
not suggest that we become indifferent to Christ's doctrine. But we are
terribly foolish if we become so enamored with the doctrine of Christ that we
become indifferent to Christ! To sleep in a bed of doctrinal indifference is
just as evil as sleeping in a bed of worldly care. "It is high time to
awake out of sleep!"
Don Fortner