Inconsistency
The Greek word which is rendered faith in our English translations is defined by Thayer as mental acceptance, whole hearted trust and obedience.
We were taught by our teachers that in order to become children of God we must completely obey God's plan of salvation. After studying the New Testament we arrived at the point where our faith became such that we accepted this teaching and became Christians.
Our love of Christ and his teaching was such that we lived in complete obedience to God's plan of Christian living.
After having lived in complete obedience for several years some of us come to a point in life where we seem to believe that we have been Christians so long that we no longer must render complete obedience, we have arrived at the point of inconsistency.
We still teach and insist that the faith of the alien sinner must be such that he must accept completely God's plan, but, our ardor has cooled, our diligence lessened and the flame of our faith has burned low. We believe that we may miss the assembly of the saints a few times for a ball game, golf, fishing, etc.. go to the dance now and then (even allow our children to take dancing lessons), when irritated allow an ugly word or two to slip from our lips, pat our business friends on the back and have a social drink with them and even apologize for those Christians who still insist on complete obedience to God's plan. Sometimes it goes even farther than this. Some groups of elders refuse to discipline delinquent members, they bring social activities into the building purchased with God's money and instigate or help organize plans for doing God's work in manners not found in God's word, claiming that we don't need a New Testament example.
Remember this article is headed inconsistency.
We still insist that alien sinners obey completely but we are at liberty to choose our own plan or plans.
By what possible power of reasoning can we arrive at the conclusion that the faith of an alien sinner must be stronger than that of a child of God ?
Truth Magazine I:6, p. 9
March 1957