How do we differentiate between essentials and nonessentials? We often hear God’s children say that such and such a teaching in the Bible is essential, and such and such a teaching is nonessential. How do we differentiate between the two? What are essential teachings, and what are nonessential teachings?
If we exercise careful observation, we will find many who consider that questions related to their own salvation are essential teachings and questions unrelated to their salvation are nonessential teachings. This is why we often hear people say, “Do I have to obey the Lord in this matter? I do not think this matter is essential because it is not related to my salvation.” Even more foolish Christians will ask, “Does this matter have to do with my salvation? If it has to do with my salvation, I will obey it. If not, what difference will it make if I do not obey it? I am saved already!”
Let me ask once more: what is essential and what is nonessential? Some may answer, “The essentials are teachings that have to do with the salvation of the saints, and the nonessentials are teachings concerning God’s commandments and His glory! The commandments and glory of God are nonessential because they have nothing to do with the saints’ going to heaven and receiving eternal life!” The fact that something is merely a commandment of God and merely related to God’s glory is not enough to motivate the saints to obey.
It is a pity that this is the condition of many people today. The saints will only obey and submit if they consider that keeping all of the commandments and obeying all of God’s will is necessary in order to be saved. God has said that those who believe in the Lord Jesus have eternal life; therefore, since they have believed and received eternal life, believers think that there is no further need to be concerned with God’s other commandments and will. Other than the questions of heaven and hell, nothing moves the saints’ hearts anymore. Even God’s own glory is something minor to the saints. Unless God makes all of His commandments as conditions for salvation, He cannot expect some saints to obey them. This is because all they hope and plan for is receiving eternal life and going to heaven. Pleasing God and submitting to His will are peripheral issues. How pitiful is this situation!
The saints today are most selfish. Nothing can attract their attention except those things that have to do with their salvation. Is this the standard that God requires? He wants us to obey Him willingly and not by force. He loves to bestow grace to us and give us eternal life once we believe in His Son. Unlike the time of the law, He has not made His commandments as conditions for our salvation. Unfortunately, believers are not willing to be obedient children and walk according to the Father’s will. On the contrary, they ask, “Is this something essential, or is it something nonessential?”
We admit that with biblical teachings, some are more important, while others are less important. But we do not agree that there are essential and nonessential biblical teachings. Would God be so uneconomical as to put meaningless and nonessential teachings, commandments, and doctrines into the Bible? He should know better than we do! The present question is not whether or not a biblical teaching is essential. If it is included in the Bible, it surely is essential. The question is whether or not the saints will honor God’s glory and His will. If we consider the Lord Jesus’ conduct on earth, our mouths will be shut. He was the Son of God. There was no need for Him to consider the question of His own salvation! Then according to the principle of men today, nothing about Him would have been essential because He did not need to be saved. But how He obeyed God! Even in the smallest matter, He fulfilled all righteousness. He was not like men today who scrupulously bargain with God in questions beyond their salvation.
There is yet another distinction between essential and nonessential. It is a personal distinction. The things that a saint obeys, he considers as essential; the things that he has not followed, but rather disobeyed God in, he considers as nonessential. The difference between essential and nonessential does not lie in the fact that the Bible has said it, but rather in one’s own view. Because one has obeyed in a certain matter, he considers the teaching he has obeyed as essential and draws back from other teachings which he has not obeyed.
Alas, now is the time for God’s children to be revived. Now is the time for us to be revived to obey God’s commandments. May we pay close attention to God’s glory and truly care for His will in the same way that Paul declared “all the counsel of God.” May we not separate God’s Bible into essential and nonessential parts according to our own will. We have to realize that obeying in big matters is indeed obedience. But obeying in small matters is also obedience. Disobeying in big matters is disobedience. Is disobedience in small matters not also disobedience? May we walk according to the teaching of the Bible and take God’s glory as our goal in everything that we do in our lives, whether great or small.
One cannot say that eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a great matter. But since God forbade man to do it, eating of the tree became the source of sin. One little sin drove Adam from the garden of Eden. Was Achan’s sin a great one? What he stole was probably not worth that much. But since he disobeyed God, he was punished. Why did Saul lose his kingdom? He did not commit a terrifying sin; he only disobeyed God in a little thing. Did Moses commit a great sin when he was barred from entering Canaan? The Bible says that he was the most humble person on earth. Why did he suffer such punishment from God? It was only because of a small thing. God told him to command the rock to flow out water, yet he hit the rock twice. Humanly speaking, what kind of sin can this be considered? In men’s eyes today, such a matter would be considered nonessential. But God never considers any of His commandments to be nonessential. May we henceforth obey God more and more!