How to Shepherd the Walk for Life

At 73 million per year worldwide, abortion is the greatest crime against humanity. And that number would be higher were it not for your moral conviction.

Abortion is a mountain of injustice only faith can move. Society permits and even applauds abortion only because it fundamentally misunderstands what it means to be human under God. Right belief drives right behavior.

With increasing cultural diversions and anti-Christian pressure added to all that vies for our attention, sometimes it is difficult to have clarity on key moral problems facing our community, nation, and world. It is precisely times like this that right belief and behavior is critical to save lives for the kingdom of God.

The problem with the audience of the letter to the Hebrews is the same problem of which the modern Western Church must be wary—“[becoming] dull of hearing” (Heb. 5:11), “unskilled in the word of righteousness” (Heb. 5:13).

The key to “press on to maturity” is that which lies between the beginning and the end—the application of these first principles (Heb. 5:12) about who God is and what it means to be human. These first principles are the new man’s operating system, directing all the activity of daily life.

Faith in Christ, carries with it day-to-day moral implications, training our senses to “discern good and evil” (Heb. 5:14). In fact, a Christian who refuses to apply his faith in Christ in the mundane interactions of life, even at the risk of discomfort, is described as fallen away (Heb. 3:12, 6:6).

But many Christians simply desire to sing “Kumbaya” around the campfire of the elementary principles of the Gospel. This of course is fine for new Christian campers, but you and I both know that refusing to apply these principles in the rough-and-tumble of life renders a believer dangerously paralyzed to make Christian decisions when faced with life’s daily moral dilemmas. And not only are these believers unequipped to act Christianly, they are rendered unable to teach others, even those basic principles of Christ (Heb. 5:12), their value being relegated to a junk closet of disembodied spirituality.

So, Scripture says, “Let us press on to maturity” (Heb. 6:1). Let us apply the first principles, for it is the Gospel that helps us understand what it means to be human.

The legalistic Christian, the one to whom the author of Hebrews is writing, is described as a spiritual infant, seeking to be fed a spiritual baby formula, receiving an eternal inheritance without too much inconvenience. The moral question these spiritual infants ask is, “How close can I get to evil without being responsible?”

The question the mature Christian ought to ask in our daily dealings with the world is “How can I keep myself “unstained by the world” (Ja. 1:27) so we can “save others… snatching them out of the fire” (Jude 23).

The Lord through Isaiah tells us that we ought to “learn to do good.” Goodness includes the following, “Seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the fatherless and plead for the widow” (Is. 1:17). All such action takes place in the public square. We must not only find ways to defend the fatherless and widowed of society, we must stand against their oppressors (Ps. 82). Lest we think this is too harsh in the context of a foot-washing Gospel message, it is worth pointing out that “[loving] your neighbor as yourself” in Leviticus 19:18 comes with the admonishment, “you shall surely reprove your neighbor” (Lev. 19:17).

The first principles of the Gospel should cause our convictions to rise to the boiling point of action. Theologian Abraham Kuyper said, “When principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, then battle is your calling, and peace has become sin; you must at the price of dearest peace, lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy, with all the fire of your faith!”

In preparation for CompassCare’s annual Walk for Life, please consider accepting the challenge to raise the funds and awareness necessary to save twice as many women and babies from abortion in 2024. Also, consider hosting your own Walk in your church. Build momentum for your Walk by deepening your Church’s pro-life passion, facilitating a small group discussion around the content of Are You Pro-life for the Right Reasons? It comes in print, E-book, or audio versions, which I personally read. With helpful discussion questions at the end of each chapter, it is designed to deepen group engagement on the five scriptural first principles of the redemption story: authority, creation, fall, redemption, and glorification. Understanding each of these building blocks of our salvation has implications for understanding who God is and what it means to be made in His image in the face of the greatest crime against humanity—abortion.