Today I was thinking about our cultural willingness as Christians to appease cultural appetites. Now, there are some Christians who speak boldly and there are some people who falsely represent the name of Christ in their crusades of hate. But, at the end of the day, there are actions and words that are either righteous or unrighteous. I fear that in our quest to not be legalistic or Pharisaical we have decided to not take a stand for our faith and beliefs at all.
And, in an attempt to appease everyone, we end up creating a divided front in the church. Are we not to be, "united in the Spirit, binding [ourselves] together with peace" because we know that "there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all." (Eph. 4:4-6, NLT)
In our culture, it is very easy and well to take Paul's sentence, "Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone" to mean that we must love everyone by the name of their sin. True love does not desire anyone to sit in their sin. And, in loving those who are not believers, we must realize that agreeing with everything they do and what they thinks define them, is not true or right! Why do we muddy ourselves in an attempt to not seem holy, pious or prude? "But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy." (1 Peter 1:15)
We are not meant to appease everyone! How can we boldly stand for righteousness and self-discipline while equally loving and forgiving all we meet? Why do we believe that we cannot wear righteousness as our precious inheritance from Christ (which it is) in the midst of non-believers and still love and respect them?
Why do we so quickly forget what the Lord said in Luke 12:49-51?
“I have come to set the world on fire, and I wish it were already burning! I have a terrible baptism of suffering ahead of me, and I am under a heavy burden until it is accomplished. Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I have come to divide people against each other!"
I think we must realize that the Gospel is offensive--not that we are to make it either offensive or more palatable. Those of us who are believers know that the Good News tells us of the Word of life! To those whose ears are not open, whose hearts are hard and whose eyes are closed, the Word of life seems to them Death! We seem like fools.
But, as Christians we are called to radically love in the face of adversity. We are to be the ones to step in wherever people are poor, wherever there are orphans, wherever there are brokenhearted, wherever people are dying. When the world wants to rush out, when the world wants to hate: we must rush in.
That is our call as Christians! But I fear that in our rushing in, we become crushed by the American idea that the sharing of faith is bad and wrong. I fear that we forget that not only is it okay to actually say the Gospel, it's what we are called to do! Not just "be seen by the way we live." If you are truly excited and changed by something you will never shut up!
No, we do not seek to offend. No, we do not seek to destroy culture. We seek to advance a Kingdom and a government that denies the borders of any country. We seek the advance the Gospel of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. We seek to do this boldly.
But remember brothers and sisters, that our fight is NOT against people! We instead are fighting spiritual battles. Our fight is against the rulers and against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12, NIV).
So, I encourage you to stand up for your faith. Stand up for what Scripture has to say as the word of truth.
Realize that it is vitally important that you live out your life in faith, honesty and truth. Those are the things that mark you as a Christian. Speak words of your deep love for all people, live a life of action out of those words, and stand for the righteousness that is our precious gift earned by Jesus' death on the cross. And, as a Christian, you can never, never, ever rely on Christ too much, or seek His guidance enough.
Love boldly, but do not try to do it of your own strength. A life finding its righteousness in Christ, is a life abundant in love and holiness.
And, in an attempt to appease everyone, we end up creating a divided front in the church. Are we not to be, "united in the Spirit, binding [ourselves] together with peace" because we know that "there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all." (Eph. 4:4-6, NLT)
In our culture, it is very easy and well to take Paul's sentence, "Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone" to mean that we must love everyone by the name of their sin. True love does not desire anyone to sit in their sin. And, in loving those who are not believers, we must realize that agreeing with everything they do and what they thinks define them, is not true or right! Why do we muddy ourselves in an attempt to not seem holy, pious or prude? "But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy." (1 Peter 1:15)
We are not meant to appease everyone! How can we boldly stand for righteousness and self-discipline while equally loving and forgiving all we meet? Why do we believe that we cannot wear righteousness as our precious inheritance from Christ (which it is) in the midst of non-believers and still love and respect them?
Why do we so quickly forget what the Lord said in Luke 12:49-51?
“I have come to set the world on fire, and I wish it were already burning! I have a terrible baptism of suffering ahead of me, and I am under a heavy burden until it is accomplished. Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I have come to divide people against each other!"
I think we must realize that the Gospel is offensive--not that we are to make it either offensive or more palatable. Those of us who are believers know that the Good News tells us of the Word of life! To those whose ears are not open, whose hearts are hard and whose eyes are closed, the Word of life seems to them Death! We seem like fools.
But, as Christians we are called to radically love in the face of adversity. We are to be the ones to step in wherever people are poor, wherever there are orphans, wherever there are brokenhearted, wherever people are dying. When the world wants to rush out, when the world wants to hate: we must rush in.
That is our call as Christians! But I fear that in our rushing in, we become crushed by the American idea that the sharing of faith is bad and wrong. I fear that we forget that not only is it okay to actually say the Gospel, it's what we are called to do! Not just "be seen by the way we live." If you are truly excited and changed by something you will never shut up!
No, we do not seek to offend. No, we do not seek to destroy culture. We seek to advance a Kingdom and a government that denies the borders of any country. We seek the advance the Gospel of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. We seek to do this boldly.
But remember brothers and sisters, that our fight is NOT against people! We instead are fighting spiritual battles. Our fight is against the rulers and against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12, NIV).
So, I encourage you to stand up for your faith. Stand up for what Scripture has to say as the word of truth.
Realize that it is vitally important that you live out your life in faith, honesty and truth. Those are the things that mark you as a Christian. Speak words of your deep love for all people, live a life of action out of those words, and stand for the righteousness that is our precious gift earned by Jesus' death on the cross. And, as a Christian, you can never, never, ever rely on Christ too much, or seek His guidance enough.
Love boldly, but do not try to do it of your own strength. A life finding its righteousness in Christ, is a life abundant in love and holiness.
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