What Will Be Our Standard?

Some time ago I read about President John Quincy Adams calling both Houses of Congress together for a special session. He came to the meeting with two "bushel" baskets. He said, "The bushel measure in my right hand came from South Carolina; the one in my left hand came from the city of New York. One of these bushel measures contains sixty-eight cubic inches more than the other one." He paused to let the implications of what he had said sink in.

President Adams then walked to a nearby table and picked up two one-pound weights. Again he spoke: "This weight in my right hand came from Massachusetts; the other one came from Maine. One of them weighs nearly an ounce more than the other." After a few moments for the members of Congress to consider what had been said, Adams concluded by saying, "Gentlemen, we need a standard measurement and a standard weight for the United States of America." The result? The establishment of the "Bureau of Weights and Measures." Now a pound is the same whether one is in Illinois or Florida. A bushel is the same in Tennessee as it is in North Dakota.

God knew man would need a standard. This standard would be the same for all people of the world. It is a standard by which we measure our lives. Those people who measure themselves by themselves, or by others, do not submit to the will of God. Humanism in our times is an extreme example of this. Humanism makes man the measure of all things.

God’s standard is His Word. We will be judged by His Word (John 12:48). God’s Word is designed to draw us unto the Christ, and fit and form us in the image of Jesus. No wonder His Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our pathway (Psalm 119:105).

His standard does not change because there is no need for change. Truth never needs to change! Since man’s nature has not changed, and since man still commits the same sins as he did in the first century, he still needs the same gospel which is God’s power unto salvation (Rom. 1:16).

Man may laugh at God’s standard, and he may disobey it, ignore it, repudiate it, try to castigate it, or try to refute it. But, it will still be here. It will remain firm. We must abide by it at all cost. (I Cor. 15:58; Rev. 2:10; John 8:12)

– Max Patterson, 4438 South 89^th Road, Bolivar, MO 65613-8012