Rather

The words of Eleanor Roosevelt are just as poignant today as they were nearly 90 years ago. She said, “One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words. It is expressed in the choices one makes.” People talk a talk, but the reality of their life is in their actions. Those actions are determined first in a single choice. As she continued, “In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.” Some may say they had no choice at all, they couldn’t see any other way but the way they chose. Worse yet is the excuse that one doesn’t have to make a choice at all, to perpetually seek neutrality. William James once wrote, “When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.” 

Believers make choices every day for self and for God. Sometimes our choices are a result of us being called out. In those times we feel like we are being backed into a corner, or between a rock and a hard place. The world never sleeps. The system we are all in, never quits. The god of this world is just as busy, working his game of cornering and confronting. He calls us out, pits us against ourself, and our God. It’s one thing to talk a talk, to repeat words of belief, but it is an entirely different thing to make a choice under pressure. One such occasion is recorded for us in Acts 5. 

The Apostle Peter had already been called out once before, brought in front of the council for ‘crimes’ against judaism. It was a chance to make a choice. He was put in a difficult situation, to say the least, but he chose Jesus over personal comfort. At the time he was being questioned, you could even say he was choosing between life and the possibility of death. In North America today we rarely face anything more than ostracizing for our faith. Recently there has been an increasing amount of examples in believers standing for their convictions and being prosecuted for it. Having said that, we aren’t really living in a time of deepening persecution. At least not compared to Syrian Christians or what some are facing in Eastern Europe as I write this. 

Simon Peter was in a much more provoked position in Acts 5.29— “Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.” He was in a place of decision. He was forced to make a choice and he chose Christ. Specifically, he chose to obey God rather than man. This verse is a result of Peter’s obedience in following the Gospel. He was just found faithful in obeying Christ’s command through an angel who released them from prison in verse 19. In verse 20 he said— “Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.” So Peter did just that along with other disciples. When the leaders found they were released and worse yet were still teaching in the name of Jesus, they were forced into a ‘corner’ to make a choice. They were told by the jewish leaders— “Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us” (28). To which Peter replied our text— “Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.”

This is the choice we have today as well. When put into a position where we have to make a choice… a disciple will choose rather to obey Christ than man. 

We are put in positions of responsibility each and every day to make decisions. Responsible for our words, our actions, our choices. Some of those are difficult, to be sure. In those times, take the opportunity as a chance to choose Jesus rather than self, this world, the easy way, or the wide road everyone else travels. Make the choice to honor Jesus rather than the flesh, the world, and the devil.