Have any of you ever heard the expression, "the end justifies the means"? I heard this expression when I was rather young, it was used in my history books when they were referring to fascism and communism. It talked about how some people believed in a positive ending, and they would do negative things in order to obtain said endings. Obviously, now, as we are looking back at the regimes of Hitler, and Stalin, we realize that this mentality did not work so well for them. The idea was that they could fix things on earth through actions like war and genocide.
But what about us as Christians? Does the end ever justify our means? Is it ok to steal money if you are intending to put it into a ministry God has called you to?(exodus 20:15) Or how about lying to make a ministry seem more appealing to donors?(proverbs 6:17) Is it ok to rebel against the governing authorities and riot in order to bring about a "good" social change? (romans 13:1-7)
Well, we know from 1 Samuel 15 that God would rather we obey His simple Word than to sacrifice something to Him. God doesn't let disobedience slide in the name of a "happy ever after" ending. Probably because He knows that life doesn't work that way. We reap whatever we sow, if we throw out deception, hate, and violence, we will be deceived, hated, and hurt.
I am not saying that we shouldn't have goals, or a destiny. Those are EXTREMELY important, and God gives those to us. But I believe, that God leaves out the exact details of the destiny He has for us. Why would he do this? I believe that if God gave us a crystal clear picture of what He wants us to be, then we would respond by finding every shortcut, good or bad, to reach that goal. Abraham would be a prime example, when he had a Ishmael with Hagar. He knew the end goal that God had for him, so he thought that maybe that end would justify the means of sleeping with Hagar. God didn't let him get away with that though, the nation of Israel still came from his wife Sarah. (Genesis 16)
At Battleground, we are about living successful lives. Attempting to cheat, and take shortcuts, to obtain that success in life will instead bring you further away from living a successful life.
God bless
