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Ah, Thou Art Rare
Consistency is an important ingredient, whether you are baking a cake or trying to live the Christian life. We look for it in all areas of life. We want a car we can count on, a job that has some security, a mate that will be faithful– all having to do with consistency. Consistency has to do with evenness, balance, control. It has to do with constancy, consideration, concern. It affects every part of who and what we are. It affects both attitudes and actions.
“Be ye therefore steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, inasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (I Cor. 15:58) is saying “be consistent.” “Be thou an example of the believers,” (II Tim. 4:1) is saying, “be consistent.” “Seek ye first the kingdom of God” (Matt. 6:33) is saying “be consistent.” And so is “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God” (I Pet. 4:11). Consistency is vital to our spiritual lives.
Consistency indicates firmness. It is the ability to stand when the going is rough. The Lord was the perfect example of consistency. Never was there any doubt about His faithfulness, no matter how difficult the situation or how hard to battle. Watch Him there in the wilderness of His temptation (Matt. 4). See his firmness, see his constancy. He was never very far from the word of His Father, never got lost in the pressure of the moment or the possibilities suggested by the tempter.
Consistency is about agreement–a balance between what one professes and the life he lives. Christians are called upon to maintain the same course of action, even when others-- most others-- have chosen the lower road. Consistency demands that they keep in mind their commitment, their devotion to the cause, their statement of belief. They are to maintain the course of holiness even if others execute intense pressures to keep them from it.
Consistency is easily discernable. People are looking. The person who says how much he loves God and speaks with blasphemous language shows no consistency; neither does the person who speaks about how his religion is important and then goes the same places and does the same things as the rest of the world. People watch. They know when a man is consistent and when he is not. If a man professes to be religious, but is lax in his attendance, the world sees it and brands him as inconsistent. Best be on your toes, for the world knows.
Consistency means things hold together like they ought. For instance, the local church must have unity in order to grow and prosper spiritually. Agreement is a part of consistency. When brethren are constantly at one another’s throats, there can be little progress, and even less spirituality. Unity is consistent with the word of God. “I beseech you...that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together...” Paul enjoins in I Corinthians 1:10. The word of God is the basis on which we can all speak the same things. If we all agree with it, we will all be consistent with it.
Consistency means bringing your life into harmony with the principles of truth and righteousness. It is getting your confession and your profession together. “Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things I say?” asked Jesus (Matt. 7:21). There is no consistency in the life that merely speaks the name of the Lord and does little else. Consistency demands that the person who confesses Christ, live like Him. Fewer things are more repugnant than hypocrisy. It may be the rankest form of inconsistency. It says one thing and does another. It shows a false face. It masks reality, hides the real thing. It’s the face of the worshiper who, with pious sayings and long prayers, looks like he is true to God, when in reality he is in tune with the world and his religion is merely a performance.
Inconsistency is baneful to evangelism. It restricts its progress by keeping the message locked up. It keeps the message from having its true power by showing the messenger to be inconsistent with what he teaches. It keeps faith and works apart and restricts the progress of the message by making the messenger too busy to distribute it.
The answer to inconsistency is to make each day count. We have to make each day important, so important that we are not willing to let any part of it pass without giving the right emphasis to the right things. We have to understand that consistency is making each day as good as we can make it. Doing what we can with what we have wherever we are is what consistency is all about.
“Ah, consistency, thou art a rare jewel.”
