Don’t come up short!

I remember the last time it happened just like it was yesterday. Well, it’s happening again. The price of a first class stamp is going up – TODAY.

The price of the stamp goes up again from 33 cents to 34. I don’t believe that it will break the bank for any of us, but it sure will be inconvenient in some ways. First, if you have a stockpile of 33 cent stamps, you will either have to use two of them, wasting 31 cents of your hard earned money, or you will have to go to the post office, wait in line for who knows how long, and buy a handful of one cent stamps to put on your letters with the old ones.

Second, and worst of all, there will be those who will take advantage of you by sending you a piece of first class mail with the 33 cent stamp only on it. Somehow the post office will deliver it anyway, and the letter carrier (used to be a mailman, but became confusing to me when I got a mailwoman) leaves an envelope for you to leave a penny in to make up the difference. If and when you remember to do this, the penny will roll out of the envelope as soon as you put it in the box and close the lid. More inconvenience.

The best thing to do is mail a bunch of stuff yesterday (too late!) and use up all your 33 cent stamps. Then buy the new stamps Monday, and you won’t have to worry about the 1 cent little monster that rears his head every now and then. But whatever you do, you do not want to come up short. You want to put enough on the letters you mail to make sure that it gets to the right destination and doesn’t come back to you.

Neither do you want to come up short spiritually. As the post office will not deliver mail with insufficient postage, you cannot please God and get to heaven without doing his will – all of it.

The writer of the book of Hebrews speaks of the failure of many Israelites to reach the promised land because they didn’t have all that God desired in them. They were short on faith and perseverance. "Let us fear therefore, lest haply, a promise being left of entering into his rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it" (Heb. 4:1).

Later he tells us that we cannot see God unless we are sanctified – that is, set apart from the world. "Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord: looking carefully lest there be any man that falleth short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby the many be defiled" (Heb. 12:14-15). The man who does not sanctify himself falls short by that much of the grace of God.

From time to time I am amazed at myself. I want to please God, to do his will and go to heaven, and so I sacrifice and work and all of that sort of thing, but the amazing part is that I still have my hand on something that I should turn loose of. It is sometimes so hard to fully give myself to the Savior, yet if one is not fully given, he comes up short.

Paul knew his duty as a preacher was to preach the whole truth. "… I shrank not from declaring unto you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly, and from house to house" (Acts 20:20). Then later, "Wherefore I testify unto you this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I shrank not from declaring unto you the whole counsel of God (vs. 26-27). Paul knew that the salvation of men’s souls depended on their doing all that God has required of them in his word. He knew that they could not just pick what they wanted or haphazardly obey to the accidental neglect of some command. For this cause he told Timothy, "Preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching" (2 Tim. 4:2). Timothy was to preach the whole counsel of God whether there was an immediate need or not.

To some who would feed on God’s word, the Bible is like a big cafeteria. They can eat what they want or not eat what they don’t. That was a failing of the Pharisees in the days of Jesus. In Matthew 15 he accuses them of disobeying the command to honor their parents by neglecting their welfare when they grew aged. "And ye have made void the word of God because of your tradition. Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, This people honoreth me with their lips; But their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me, Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men" (Matt. 15:6-9). When we leave off one thing that God commands us, we make void his word and our worship becomes vain.

Jesus asked his disciples, "And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46). There is never any consideration given to those who would do merely what they choose to do in obedience. There was never any room to leave anything out. A true disciple does whatever Jesus commands and make his law the foundation of his life.

Jesus therefore said to those Jews that had believed him, If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my disciples" (John 8:31).

As we look through the Bible, we see that incomplete obedience is equated with disobedience. For example, in 1 Samuel 15 we have the story of King Saul’s mission to utterly destroy the Amelekites. To utterly destroy meant to completely destroy, not just the men, but the men, women, children, and all their livestock. (vs. 3). But Saul did not kill everyone. He spared the best of the flocks and herds, and brought back captive King Agag (vs. 8-9). "And Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of Jehovah: I have performed the commandment of Jehovah. And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? (vs. 13-14).

Had he performed the commandment of Jehovah? If he had, why then the fuss? Samuel continues: "Jehovah sent thee on a journey, and said, Go, and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of Jehovah, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah? And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of Jehovah, and have gone the way which Jehovah sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the devoted things, to sacrifice unto Jehovah thy God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, Hath Jehovah as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of Jehovah? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because thou hast rejected the word of Jehovah, he hath also rejected thee from being king" (vs. 18-23).

If we are not careful to do all that Jesus requires of us, are we any better than Saul? Of course not. There are some things that Jesus tells us that we may find unpleasant, some things that may even be obnoxious to us. There may be some things that we consider unimportant. But when we fail to do those things, we are disobeying the Lord. A failure to do all is disobedience. A failure to do all is to come up short.