I like football. When I say that in church some people groan, others respond with comments such as, “Really?” “Never knew that.” Or, “yep, we’ve heard that before.” And since I was raised in Western Pennsylvania, I’m a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. The team recently traded one of their really good players, Antonio Brown, to the Raiders.
When you are traded you put aside the uniform and helmet you used to wear and put on the uniform and helmet of the new team. Mr. Brown, however, didn’t want to put on the new helmet. He didn’t like it. He wanted to continue to wear his old helmet, with just the outside logo changed. The team denied his request. So, he went to the league and appealed. The NFL denied his request. The only alternative left for appeal was through arbitration. He lost again. He would not be allowed to wear his old helmet.
Sounds like much ado about nothing, but it really isn’t. The football helmets have been re-designed over the last few years because of the plethora of head injuries to the players. They have been designed with accessories to protect the player, keep him from suffering concussions, and allow him to finish his career without sustaining damage that will affect him for the rest of his life.
As Christians, when we get “traded” from this dark world into the Kingdom of God’s Dear Son through salvation, we too are commanded to pick up the “helmet” of our new experience. “Let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” [1 Thessalonians 5:8-9]
You can’t keep wearing the old head gear with the world’s, the flesh’s, and the devil’s logo. You must pick up the helmet of salvation … faith, love, self-control … in order to receive that ultimate salvation that awaits us in the presence of our LORD Jesus Christ.
