Youth Page

When someone has not done a good job, he is fired. The person may be an employee who does not work as he should. The person may be an actor who does a poor job of learning his speaking lines. The person may be a professional athlete who cannot play his sport the way he needs to for the team to win.

When the person is told he is no longer needed or wanted, it is known as "getting the axe." This means that the person is no longer allowed to work for the employer. He is no longer a part of the team. He is no longer in the play.

When John the Baptist was teaching in Judea, he made reference to those who would "get the axe" from God. In Matthew 3:10 he said, "And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire."

Not only would those who did not obey God get the axe, but they would be completely cut down and thrown into the fire of hell. This does not sound like something I would want to happen to me.

Have you ever been to a circus? When I was a boy, the circus traveled around the country. It would stop in a town and put up the big main tent. The big tent was known as the Big Top. When the circus was finished performing in that town, the Big Top and all the rest of the circus was taken down and packed up. When it was all packed up, it could be moved to another town.

The ancient Greeks had a word for packing things up like this. At first, the word was used for simply packing up baggage so one could go from one place to another. Over time, the word was used for taking something apart and packing it. Eventually, it was used for the very violent plundering that an enemy army would do when it conquered a town. It would tear everything down and pack up the best things to carry them off to their home country. The town they had conquered would be left destroyed.

This word is used in Acts 15:24. "Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment." The word "subverting" is the word we have been talking about.

There were some people who were teaching that Christians must keep the Old Law, the Law of Moses. The apostles and elders at Jerusalem wrote the Christians in Antioch, telling them that this is wrong. Christians do not have to keep any part of the old law. If someone believed this, he had allowed the enemy to come and dismantle, pack up, and carry away his soul to another country. This is a way of saying that one's soul had been captured by the enemy and he was no longer a citizen of God's kingdom if he believed that a Christian had to keep the Old Law.

Do not let anyone pack up your soul. Study the Bible. Learn what is right for a Christian to do. Keep your soul from those who would try to take it apart and carry it away from the Kingdom of God.

Get God's wisdom. And if any of this is hard to understand, ask an adult to help you. Until next time, keep reading your Bible.