Friday, August 16, 2024
Across conservative media America is hearing much about “stolen valor”, the context of which has been Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ VP running mate, Tim Walz, and his embellished (no, lied about) military rank he obtained at time of his retirement from the military. Walz boasts a higher rank though not completing the work of that rank, he didn’t pay the price associated with the rank he claims. And that lie is a blatant theft and has rightly earned the term “stolen valor”. To claim a military rank that one has not actually achieved, a rank for which one had not paid the price, is frankly an offense to all those who actually paid the price for that rank.
Anything of value comes at a cost. Things we buy in retail, clothing, grocery and hobby stores have non-negotiable costs. If one isn’t willing to pay the prices at one store he or she is welcome to shop elsewhere. Nonetheless, a price will be paid for what one wants unless one resorts to the illegal avenue of theft, which, to a conscientious person is never an option because theft is never an option. In today’s world we’re no longer shocked by people guilty of theft, extortion, bribery and deceit, lording authority over others while they themselves are corrupt beyond description.
We live in a world with many thieves using many different forms of theft; some very blatant smash and grab thefts which we’ve all seen in liberal Democrat-run cities. There’s also high end sophisticated thefts, often referred to as white collar or corporate thefts. Often the love of money motivates theft. Illegal theft, bribery, stolen valor, etc. is as ancient as fallen mankind. Though it defies all ecclesiastical rules of faith in Christ, such thefts even occur in Christian churches. The Western version of the 10% tithe is just one example of blatant theft by church officials which I explain in full biblical detail in my new book “ON EAGLES’ WINGS”. The book will bless you. New birth faith comes at a high price; Christ paid a high price in which we also must share. For example, He said “A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me” (John 15:20–21).
But today I share with you the worst and most egregious stolen valor of all, the stolen valor of claiming to be a follower of Christ without counting the cost. And because the cost was not made real by watered-down, secularized, feel-good, ear-tickling and easy-salvation sermons preached by pastors, teachers and ministers not called by God, many have stolen the title Christian without first counting the cost because they were never told that that title obtained by sincere repentance from sin and unbelief and sincere confession that Jesus Christ is LORD came with the very high cost of self-denial. The Cross of Jesus Christ was cruel and brutal, and He suffered it for you and me, that we might by true enduring faith in His shed blood be grafted into the Vine of Christ and be eternally saved. Can we be so naïve as to think that such benefit costs us nothing? Not at all!
Jesus Christ commanded counting the cost saying, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26–33).
We must have ears to hear that again: “whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple”. How does that fit with most church preachers, Bible teachers and their teaching? It doesn’t, because most people have been taught that they can have a really happy easy road faith.
Spiritual thieves are very real which Jesus Christ even addressed. Many speak of faith in Christ but have not counted the cost thereof, and consequently know little to nothing about living life to the glory and honor of Christ. They climbed into the sheepfold another way rather than coming through the small and narrow gate of Christ, Matt. 7:13–14. They claim faith in Christ but their lives don’t bear fruit to that claim, for which Jesus said “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He [God the Father] takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:2). And a few verses later Jesus warned “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they [angels, at the resurrection rapture Matt. 13:41–42)] gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned” (John 15:6).
There are even many credentialed pastors, ministers and Bible teachers who are fakes, but they are expert at hiding their unbelief from the sheeple, keeping them satisfied with smooth words and false messages that tickle their ears and supercharge the egos and emotions of their flocks. So, Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matt. 7:21–23). Many pastors and teachers are self-deceived because they preach a gospel pleasing to the ear, being trained by doctrines and traditions of men that make God’s Word of no effect rather than the self-crucifying and faithful word of God. This is why it is spiritually imperative that each of us believers are very selective to whom we give ear.
Counting the cost in order to be a faithful follower of Christ runs counter to “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16), but is entirely essential. It’s imperative to keep ourselves in the love of Christ, Jude 1:21, by holding faithfully to the testimony of our Lord and living a life that honors the cruel Cross of Christ and His shed blood for our redemption from an otherwise life of eternal hopelessness and separation from God and His Christ. In this process, however, we dare not make for ourselves any graven images, Exo. 20:4, but remember by faith that our High Priest, Jesus Christ, rose from the dead and ascended to His Father’s right hand, and thus we worship Him in spirit and in truth, John 4:23–24. The apostle Paul testified to the cost of having followed Christ faithfully: “To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless. And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now” (1 Cor. 4:11–13). Dear friends, let none of us on that great Day of Judgment, 2 Cor. 5:10, be found guilty of a spiritual stolen valor, but make it our aim to hear “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:21). Amen!
Marlin J. Yoder
