OUR CHRISTIAN FAITH is not a religion. It is a living and lively relationship that draws its source from a personal interaction with the Person who created us. Because of the various iterations of the melding of church with state and culture that we have grown so used to, we may benefit from considering that the movement of God that came incarnate as the first advent of Jesus began as vehemently counter to the world’s states and cultures. It is not meant first and foremost as an interaction of God embracing the social, political, ethical, and philosophical core values developed by man and then augmenting all of those by adding faith. It is not meant to be popular, hip, or tolerant. God placed Jesus on the earth to shake things up, to make the comfortable feel affliction, to establish values counter to the felt-need driving values so common to man—and especially to bring eternal salvation (cf. John 3:16-17) from the curse initiated by Satan. (cf. Gen. 3:1-19)
Paul informs us that Satan controls the people of this world, including the people who lead nations. “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Cor. 4:4) God sent Jesus to “destroy the devil’s works.” (1 John 3:8)
The destruction of these works affects every level of human interaction beginning in very intimate relationships. Jesus says, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.” (Matt. 10:34-36) Jesus is clearly a polarizing force. In fact, in his own time and historically since then, he remains the most disrupting force in all of mankind.
It should not surprise us, then, that Jesus’ warning to his disciples clearly distinguished between the world and those coming out of it to follow him. To his disciples—then and now—from the events in motion during the Last Supper, he says, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.” (John 15:18-21)
What’s it like in your life and in your faith and ministry call? This is, by the way, a scriptural truth about every Christ-follower—everyone has a calling. If the world seems to love us, some alarm bells should be going off in our spirit. A test for this might be to proclaim the same faith that you speak of so comfortably inside the four walls of your church in some other locations instead. Try it in your home. Maybe you’ve been consistent there in sharing your beliefs, and you receive affirmation—or maybe, in your own home, it pits “a man against his father, a daughter against her mother.” (Matt. 10:35a)
Let’s take it up a notch. Be vocal about your faith at work, or somewhere in the public square. Oh… should be careful now, there’s laws about these things. How bold is your witness? If you’re not getting some pushback at some level, maybe it’s time to have a talk with the man in the mirror. It can be uncomfortable, but Jesus has a word for you here: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.” (Matt. 5:11-12) Which approach to your expression of faith weighs more on your scales of value?
If the church of our time seems bloated and stodgy, there’s no ‘maybe’ about it—the church has become too much like the surrounding world. There is no ‘perhaps’ about the need for the church to rekindle its first love (cf. Rev. 2:4-5), and to revision its mission to “seek and save the lost.” (Luke 19:10) But ‘the church’ is not anonymous—it’s made of people, and you and I are some of those. Where do we take our stand, if not for Jesus? And when do we take our stand, if not now?
Q. Have I already ‘made my stand?’
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