It is acknowledged among men to be a thing of great value that one should act on fixed principles. So true is this that he who is without a principle in the things of the world is a man in whom no one will put confidence.
And if of acknowledged importance in ordinary affairs, of how much more serious moment is it that we should be guided in the things of God by some definite and divine principle, instead of being left to the wanderings of our own minds or those of others? Those who are not guided by definite principles are, as described in Ephesians 4, liable to be tossed and carried about with every wind of doctrine. They are only babes; they have not come to full maturity.
Now the Word of God is so written that it abounds with certain leading principles which the saint is to gather up, and by which his walk is to be guided in the world. It is surely of value to learn the Word of God in detail, but one may read it all his life long, and, if the leading principles that run throughout it are not laid hold of, the Word becomes of comparatively little value for positive guidance. I admit there is an immense benefit in it, even for those who do not lay hold of these principles, but such souls are never steady in their walk, nor true in their testimony for God on the earth. They are variable, and apt to be taken by that which seems best. The saint who has the mind of Christ, as revealed in God’s Word, is one not thus open to the seduction of Satan, or the craft of men.
I propose, the Lord helping me, to point out some of those principles which run through the entire Word of God in connection with the subject before us.