Christ Our Clarity

It seems that there are so many who are confused these days - because they do not have the certainty of Christ in their lives and do not believe or adhere to His principles, they are easily swayed to believe the lies of the enemy. In John 8, Jesus says:
(42) ..."If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.
43 Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word.
44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.

Some lies that seem to be common these days include, "I was born in the wrong body," or "the wrong gender was assigned to me at birth."  While it is true, people are struggling in that area, but that mindset is being exacerbated by various influences that speak what is not true.

A piece at the Daily Citizen website of Focus on the Family announced recently that those who wish to participate in women's track and field in the Olympics "will now be required to confirm their gender via a cheek swab or dry blood DNA test."  The article notes:

Sebastian Coe, who heads up World Athletics, the governing body of track, was clear-headed and resolute in announcing the new policy.

“We’re not just talking about the integrity of female women’s sport, but actually guaranteeing it,” Coe said. “And this, we feel, is a really important way of providing confidence and maintaining that absolute focus on the integrity of competition.”

Paul Batura, who wrote the article, went on to say:

Inexplicably, the International Olympic Committee has elected to leave this issue up to each sport’s international federation.

It’s this leadership vacuum that not only threatens the integrity of individual sports but also jeopardizes the health and safety of the athletes themselves.

He brought back memories of an Algerian boxer who had been disqualified by the International Boxing Association a few years before the previous Summer Olympic games because of an XY chromosome. Batura writes: "The International Olympic Committee (IOC) went along with Khelif’s charade and allowed the boxer to punch away on female athletes." He also noted, "Track and Field has been navigating this gender controversy since 2009 when Caster Semenya, a South African athlete with naturally high testosterone levels, first won a gold medal in 800 meters at the World Championships."

In this and so many other areas, we need the clarity of Christ. The Daily Citizen piece says:

Be aware that you’ll be reading in the coming days and weeks that World Athletics is banning “transwomen athletes” – but such a claim isn’t true. That’s because there’s no such thing as a “transwoman” – there are just two genders, male and female. Just because a man is pretending to be a woman doesn’t make it so.

The article goes on to state:

Trust but verify.

It’s been 125 years since women first appeared in the 1900 Olympics in Paris. There were just 22 of them out of a total of 997 athletes. These commonsense policies being implemented in Track and Field will ensure that the distinctiveness of female competition will be maintained and protected in the upcoming Summer Olympic games in Los Angeles in 2028.

The gender issue is just one out of many in which the world's ideas are being allowed to supersede and reject God's truth.  Batura wrote, "Just because a man is pretending to be a woman doesn’t make it so." There are many counterfeits in this world - Satan is the father of lies, the great deceiver, who even comes as an "angel of light," the Bible says.  But, just because something appears to be a certain way doesn't make it factual.   

I think it's helpful and instructive to examine our own set of beliefs and allow the Holy Spirit to shine His penetrating light into our hearts.  The standard is God's Word and the Holy Spirit will bring conviction and correction based on the enduring truth of God's truth.  The gender issue is foundational, because there are challenges to the authenticity and authority of God as creator, as stated in the book of Genesis.  During Holy Week, Jesus drove corruption out the Temple - we can drive wrong ideas out of our consciousness by rejecting lies and embracing truth.