by Steven Chan
When we go to new places and are not sure where we can eat good food, a useful guide is to look for one where there are lots of people eating there. I remembered joining a long queue in London just to buy Cornish pies. The reasoning being that if so many are queuing to buy, the pies must be good! Well, the pies were not too bad.
In choosing where to eat, following the crowd may not be a bad idea. However, in choosing what we need to do in life, “following the crowd” is not a good idea. In Exodus 23:2, the Bible says: “You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice.”
“You shall not follow a crowd to do evil” is an appropriate reminder as a growing number of people are becoming sympathetic towards approving works of a “debased mind, and doing those things which are not fitting” (Rom 1:28). Those committing acts of homosexuality are demanding that society accords them the right of “marriage” notwithstanding that marriage is an institution ordained by God in Genesis 1 &2 and God had clearly said that marriage is between a man and a woman (who was specially created by God to be a help-meet and companion for man).
In Matt 7:13-14, Jesus said: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
Many have chosen to follow the crowd to religious groups that attract thousands of members even though some of these leaders have gone far astray from the teachings of the Scriptures (1 Tim 4:1-3) and some have even been convicted for criminal breaches of trust involving the use of the organization’s funds.
We should follow the guidance of the Scriptures even when no one else is willing to do so. Noah and his family chose to follow God and they were proven to have made the right decision when the multitudes were drowned in the prophesied flood. The Bible reminded us of this event in 1 Peter 3:20: “when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water”.
Are we guided by God’s Word in our daily choices or by the crowd that we find ourselves in?
