CORE VALUES

I believe President Bill Clinton helped to popularize this term back in the 1990s. It refers to the ideas & principles to which a person or organization is committed & will not compromise.

One necessity in the Christian life is a consistent view of things. This view informs us & motivates us to be faithful to what God has revealed to us in Scripture. In other words, the Christian’s core values must be biblical.

If your core values are biblical, it is inevitable that you will be confronted by situations where you are expected to believe, affirm, do, or say things that violate Scripture. Unless you are willing to suffer for those values, you will eventually follow the crowd & go against those values.

Part of the responsibility of pastors & other spiritual leaders is to establish disciples in the truth of Scripture so that they will not be carried away by false teachings. After describing these leaders' work in Ephesians 4, we are told,

As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ (verses 14-15).

Your pastor has a challenging job. Pray for him (or her). Receive your pastor's godly counsel, whether it is given one-on-one or from the pulpit. Then be committed to living by biblical core values every day.