There is an old saying that ”we must stand for something or we will fall for anything.”

As Christadelphians we are often accused by the world of being narrow- minded and bigoted because we do not believe that sincerity is enough or that God will save all who call themselves Christians. We may get used to this but it still makes us feel sad when someone we like becomes unhappy with us because we stand up for what we believe.

We know to a slight degree how Jesus must have felt when he saw that many of his followers went back and followed him no more. This occurred after he had said some ”hard sayings.” Sadly Jesus turned to his intimate group and said. ”Will ye also go away?” Loveable Peter responded with the right answer, ”to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.”

Sometimes hard sayings have to be said, yet we are sorry when they alienate those we love. The alternative is to be soft and not say what needs saying or not standing for what we believe to be right. This is so unacceptable that we simply have to ”bite the bullet,” so to speak, and make our stand lovingly but firmly.

This experience is well known to all Christadelphians. It sometimes will even divide families and the pain of seeing one go away is only slightly lessened by the fact that Jesus predicted that such things would occur for the truth’s sake and he blessed those who put him ahead of family and friends.

Is there any advice we can give or receive that will help us when we are trying to stand up for what we believe is right against opposition? Well, first we need to be sure we have taken the matter to God in prayer and that we have asked Him to guide us. We need to have examined ourselves and our position to be sure that we are scripturally correct. We need to remember Paul’s advice that the ”servant of. the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentence to the acknowledging of the truth.”

We need to pray for those with whom we differ. It matters not whether they are in or out of our family of God. Prayer changes things. Jesus told us to pray even for our enemies so this would certainly apply to friends and relatives with whom we may be having a difference of opinion.

A great many problems simply would not exist if all involved were fervently praying for one another. Parties still might not agree but no one would be disagreeable. We should always keep our words sweet in case we later must eat them. As sincere as we know we are, we also are not perfect and we are all going to need forgiveness in order to be accepted by our Lord for whom we are making our stand.

So we should first pray that God will guide us as we attempt to stand for what we believe to be right. Secondly we should be gentle and patient with those that oppose us, and finally we should be fervently praying for them. We firmly believe that ”the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” Moses had enemies who were so unhappy with him they wanted to stone him. In this instance God was willing to destroy Moses’ adversaries and make of Moses a great nation. Think of the temptation this would have been to a lesser man. Get rid of all opposition at once and become exalted as the father of a new nation and it would have been God’s will. Instead Moses approaches God in prayer for the people who want to kill him and pleads, ”Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people, according unto the greatness of thy mercy.” This prayer changed the whole course of history for ”The LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word.”

God is as much in command now as He was then, so let us ”cast our burden upon Him knowing He will comfort and sustain us.”