Today I’d like to ask you a sincere question: Do the voices trying to shape your beliefs and views share your moral values and your love for God? Do their opinions about behavior, boundaries, and lifestyle match what Jesus and the Bible teach? If not, then why allow them to influence your thinking? Why give them any voice or input in your life?
In Ephesians 4, the Apostle Paul teaches that God’s goal for those who mentor believers is to help Christians grow up and mature—becoming productive members of the body of Christ. We are to learn how to reach, teach, and touch others with God’s love. God has given us His Word so that we would mature spiritually and reflect His love in our actions and attitudes. When that happens, Paul says this will be true of us:
“Then we will no longer be like children, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching—forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different, or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth. Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of His body, the church.” (Ephesians 4:14–15)
The media, culture, and influencers of our day will confidently tell you that sex outside of marriage is acceptable, that same-sex relationships are simply another option, that transgenderism is normal, and that mocking the President or those in authority is acceptable—even virtuous. They will insist that profanity is normal, not profane, sexuality outside of marriage is more normal than marriage itself, abortion isn’t the taking of a life, and that defending your country against terrorists is an act of aggression. The goal of media today is to desensitize us to crime, murder, and senseless violence by embracing lawlessness and a lack of law and order.
But the real question is: Does God agree with any of this?
As the world’s opinions swirl, many become discouraged and conclude, “There is no truth—everything is just perspective.”
When someone embraces that mindset, Satan has gained a foothold, and deception has begun. The lines between right and wrong blur. Absolutes disappear. And once that happens, people justify doing “whatever they want” as long as it doesn’t “hurt anyone else.”
But that thinking is flawed. Everything we do affects others—always and eventually.
So let me ask again: Whose opinions are shaping your life? Do the shifting, worldly voices lead your decisions, or do you allow God and His Word to be the anchor of your thoughts so you’re not tossed around like a leaf in a storm? God desires to be the anchor of your soul and the primary voice forming your discernment, counsel, and choices.
Paul continues in Ephesians 4:17–31 (NLT): “With the Lord's authority I say this: Live no longer as the ungodly do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their closed minds are full of darkness; they are far away from the life of God because they have shut their minds and hardened their hearts against Him. They don't care anymore about right and wrong, and they have given themselves over to immoral ways. Their lives are filled with all kinds of impurity and greed. But that isn't what you were taught when you learned about Christ. Since you have heard all about Him and have learned the truth that is in Jesus, throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of lust and deception. Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes. You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God's likeness—righteous, holy, and true…”
Worldviews, morals, and beliefs shift like the wind. Don’t waste your time in conversations that distract you from becoming the mature Christian God has called you to be. Don’t allow yourself to be tossed to and fro.
The declining moral values of culture were never meant to reshape Christianity. Christianity is meant to restrain culture from drifting into beliefs contrary to God’s ways. So make God’s Word the anchor of everything you think, believe, speak, and do. It is your calling in Christ. He never changes—nor should your foundation in Him.
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.
