Almost forty years ago, an 11-year-old boy spent every chance he got fishing from the dock at his family’s cabin on an island in the middle of a lake.
One evening when bass season was scheduled to open at midnight, he and his father were catching sunfish and perch with worms. The boy decided to tie on a small bass lure and practice casting. On his first cast as the lure struck the water, his pole gave a hard jerk and doubled over. A very large fish was on the other end. Eventually the excited young fisherman pulled an immense fish from the water, the largest he had ever seen. But it was a bass.
Silently looking at the trophy fish, his dad shined the flashlight on his watch: 9:00 p.m. three hours before bass season opened. Looking at his boy, he gently said, “You’ll have to put it back, son.”
“Dad?!” cried the boy in disbelief.
“There’ll be other fish,” said his father quietly.
“Not as big as this one,” he cried. He desperately looked around the lake. No one was watching. He gave his father an imploring look.
Dad knew what his boy was thinking.
“Put it back, son,” said the gentle but firm voice. The boy realized that his dad (a devout Christian) had made a nonnegotiable decision. With tears running down his face, the boy slowly worked the hook from the huge bass’s mouth and lowered it into the lake. With one quick splash, the fish was gone.
Today that boy is a successful Christian businessman. Though he never again caught such a large fish, the lesson he learned that night has been vital to his success. Ethics (so confused in this godless world) are not blurred, gray areas of man’s opinions. They are (as they always have been) simple matters of right and wrong in the sight of God.
The young fisherman also learned something else that night. Knowing true Christian morals and ethics is easy. Practicing them is hard and painful.
This is especially so in Western lands where the godless principles of humanism have replaced the perfect light and truth of God’s standards found in the Bible.
All godly, moral standards found in Scripture have become negotiable in Western culture. Personal gain and satisfaction (“me first” rather than “God first”) are the fundamental elements used to make final determinations of moral standards and conduct.
Thus it is that in every facet of daily life those who “will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:1212Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. (2 Timothy 3:12)). We must not think that persecution only happens in other cultures, where Christians are physically persecuted for their faith.
One who “sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not” (Psa. 15:44In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not. (Psalm 15:4)) in order to honor God in lands which espouse personal liberty of conscience will feel very real pain and persecution. May we be willing to suffer for “righteousness’ sake” in order to please Him who suffered and died to give us life!
Ed.