God’s wisdom.
God has greater wisdom than us, when he commands we should follow even if it goes against what we feel would be wise. Being a Christian is a vulnerable position. It is not a “bed of roses.” There may be persecution and hardship. Can we expect less if Christ and the Apostles went through trails and death?
Following Christ demands that we all do our part, I have found it strange that some think we should not interact with the “world” (those who do not know Christ) (1). However, this thinking is not at all biblical. Christ, the apostles, the early church and many great Christians throughout the ages all taught and acted in opposition to this thinking.
Our platform.
One area that I powerful is the social networking and blogging world. I see many Christians “advertising” their business on let’s say Facebook (which I am not against doing), but what about talking and posting about the most important things in life?
This is a great and powerful avenue for the furtherance of the Kingdom. Christ, the apostle’s, the early church, Christians in persecuted countries, and many early starts of solid Christian groups used any and every sources that they could to tell others about Christ.
If your friend was in the path of an impending bullet, would you try to inform him to move? What about eternity? Are we willing to tell others the way to Christ showing freedom from sin, hell and Satan?
Freedom.
In the past there was great persecution, many Christians retracted into the background. While this might have been wise for that time, today there is a good measure of freedom of speech. We should be talking! Yes it is easier to “sit on ones hands”, but this goes against scripture teaching (2).
Blessings.
You will be blessed by God if you challenge the nominal Christian. You will be blessed if you if you interact with those who do not know Christ. You will be blessed if you interact with the unbelieving on the street, on social networking sites, in the neighborhood and in the work place.
Be bold, be intentional, be confident, be knowledgeable, be merciful. That’s how Christ was.
Yes there will be criticism. There will be persecution. But God will give joy and blessings! That is all that really matters.
(1) 1 Corinthians 5:9-10 “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.”
(2) Matthew 28:19-20 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
I do want to note that this is a perpetual propagating command that Jesus gave. It says “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations…Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you…” If the apostles taught others what they were taught, those others would have to “…teach all nations…Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you…” It goes on as an unbroken chain.
This command can be seen lived and obeyed in the early Church as written in Acts:
Acts 8:1-4 “…And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles…Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.”
