By: Obed Pineda
During military operations, knowing the terrain the unit is operating on is crucial to successfully carrying out a mission. It must be noted that in the military, the term success is not solely applied to the accomplishment of the mission, but more so of obtaining the goal without the loss of any soldiers involved in the operation. These brave men and women already have the perils of enemy warfare they must be cognizant of as they enter the battlefield, so eliminating the threat of being directionless out in the field is undeniably a priority of paramount importance. Behold the crucial role of the compass man. The compass man of a military unit is the one responsible for ensuring that they stay on course during the assignment. They are tasked with learning the map of where their operation will be taking place and becoming familiarized with the geography of the location where they will be trekking to. For this reason, a wise squad leader will rely heavily on the navigation skills of his compass man in order to lead all his men back home safely. Needless to say that if the compass man has poor navigation skills during their commission either because he was negligent in properly studying the map or because he never learned how to correctly read a map, the casualties of war automatically increase because he could potentially misguide his unit into enemy territory. His unskilled reading of the map risks all the lives of the compass man’s compatriots. On several occasions, the Master teacher exposed this very dangerous trend among the Jewish religious leaders of His time stating, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. Woe to you, blind guides” (Matthew 23:15-16a). The meaning of the Lord’s illustration is made abundantly clear when we recall that prior in Matthew’s account, Jesus affirmed to His disciples that “they are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch” (Matthew 15:14). The Savior in His admonishment of the scribes and Pharisees was spotlighting their improper handling of the Scriptures. They were guilty of misinterpreting the true meaning of God’s Word, by making improper applications of Scriptures that conveniently fit their erred views (cf. Matthew 23:16-33). The contamination of their misguided and egotistical doctrines led far too many people to their eternal doom, as revealed by the Redeemer in our earlier text. Lamentably, this treacherous trend of mishandling Holy Writ is still happening today in our modern world (cf. 2nd Peter 2:1-3, 3:14-18). When one considers the jeopardy that incorrectly teaching God’s entire counsel will have, the pristine sound of Paul’s instructions to Timothy must ring loudly in our spiritual hearing. The apostle through inspiration wrote, “avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will” (2nd Timothy 2:23-26). The Almighty has always declared that His chosen people must be the ones to guide mankind to all truth (cf. Malachi 2:7, 2nd Corinthians 5:17-20, 1st Peter 3:13-17). If one is to carefully ponder the purpose for God choosing His people, it makes logical sense that He would commission those who have an accurate knowledge of Him and His will to be the same who dispense it to all who have yet to meet Him. Of course, this also solidifies the irrefutable reality that the saints of God must become intimately familiarized with Him and what His desire for His creation is. We, as His Church, must “not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2). Paul had already advised Timothy to “give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine…meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. Take heed to yourself and the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you” (1st Timothy 4:13, 15-16). Remember that the inspired apostle has verified that this is the responsibility of the servants of the Lord, thus establishing that they are the compass men of this world. This also manifests that the Bible is the map God has provided mankind so that he may know how to navigate his life while in enemy territory (cf. 2nd Timothy 3:10-17, 2nd Peter 1:1-4, Jude 3-4). Verily, the apostle John alerts us that “we know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1st John 5:18-19). Our duty as the compass men of this world is undeniable and for this reason it is of the utmost importance to “be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth” (2nd Timothy 2:15). Because we as the Church have been entrusted with the task of ensuring that society stay on the moral course that leads toward eternal life in heaven; learning, understanding, and correctly applying God’s entire Word must already be in place before we can provide direction to others. Anyone who audaciously chooses to teach without having fully understood the whole counsel of God first, endangers the souls of those whom they guide for they themselves “are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” (Jude 12b-13). The obedient and loyal servants of Christ Jesus take this assignment of being a compass men very seriously, for we comprehend that an aimless life without direction can only have a tragic end. Hence the reason Jesus lovingly revealed, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house” (Matthew 5:14-15). With the Lord’s revelation in mind, it becomes inevitably clear that our assignment is to only be the point man; those who point in Scriptures the direction all men must take so that they will find salvation for their souls.