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Obey God no matter what world thinks
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What are Christians supposed to do when they are surrounded by those who refuse to hold to God’s teachings?
What about when they are faced with a world that does not believe there is a God? As in any instance, the Bible gives Christians the answer — they just have to be strong enough and bold enough and have enough faith to stick with God no matter what.
In the Old Testament, we read of several of God’s people who were faced with situations such as this. Daniel comes to mind as one of the most faithful men in the Bible. He endured many things, yet always remained faithful to God.
Today, society wants to make moral issues a matter of rights, rather than morality. Those who stand for what God says is right are said to be unloving and hateful.
It may be that some “so-called Christians” do not have the right attitude or purpose, but those who truly are Christians love everyone, but they do not love sinful ways.
So what are Christians supposed to do? The Old Testament account of Daniel shows how this works.
Daniel was not in the best situation one would want to be in. When we are introduced to him, he is a slave who has been taken from his homeland. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, attacked Jerusalem on three different occasions and took away many people captive.
We find in Daniel 1 that during the third year of Jehoiakim’s reign, Daniel and others were captured. Most believe from the text that Daniel was made a eunuch for service in the kingdom of Babylon.
Think of his situation: taken from your home land and family, enduring the life of a slave and living in a land where Jehovah God is not respected — in fact, idolatry is the nation’s religion. Yet in all this, Daniel determined to do what was right in God’s sight.
When Daniel arrived in Babylon, he was placed in a type of training program. He was put to work and given certain privileges, one of which was special food from the king.
This was a problem for Daniel; being Jewish, he knew he was not to eat certain foods. Most in his place would have gone along with the crowd and not made any waves, but Daniel was determined to do right.
He made an agreement with those in his charge to not eat the king’s food, but to eat simple food (pulse and water) and not to violate Jewish law. His determination to do right brought great blessing to him from God.
Later, under another king, Daniel once again faced not being able to do what the king ordered because it would have meant him not doing what he knew God wanted him to do. Men who did not like Daniel had the king make a decree that, for 30 days, no one was to ask anything of any god or man except the king (Daniel 6). The king, letting pride get the best of him, signed the law.
What was Daniel to do? If he continued to pray to God, as was his daily routine, he would be thrown to the lions. When time came for Daniel to pray, he did just that — he prayed to God and did not try and hide to do so. He trusted in God.
All Christians must determine that, no matter what, we will follow God. It may not always be easy but, like Daniel, we must follow God’s teachings.

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