In the previous blog I stated that I don't think we should embrace the culture of the lost to the point that we dwell in it - but there is another reaction to it that is just as wrong. This is when people become so fearful of the thoughts, beliefs and actions of certain groups that they recoil and separate. You know these people, our churches are full of them. They despise the philosophies and mindsets of the lost so much that they dismiss them as demonic and evil and refuse to have anything to do with them but condemnation from afar.
This is not how Paul ever treated the culture of the world. In Acts 17 he not only knows the writings of several Greeks philosophers, he uses them in a positive way! Then he takes their writings as a stepping-stone to introduce the one true God. If people understand that there is a holy God, then the idea of judgment, repentance, and a savior will make sense to them, and that is what he does at the end of his Mars Hill discourse. He doesn't just recoil at their idolatry and wipe the dust off his feet. The filth of the world and their hopeless worship of their self-created idols should cause us to despair - but not to disengage and separate.
A fearful separation is just as useless in Kingdom Advancement as full immersion. Paul was horrified by their idol worship (Acts 17:16), but he kept his mouth shut and went to work, using their culture as a means to bring them to God. He lifted up Christ to the lost, using their own words. How cool - and challenging - is that?
1 comment:
Amen! I feel strongly that showing Christ's love involves helping rathering than condemning. If we are working along side a business associate, and we observe an error they have produced in their work, do we then scold them? Do we say, "get away from me, thy maker of incorrectness!" I think not. In fact, if we did, we certainly would be setting ourselves up to look foolish if we were in fact wrong. It seems it would be more productive to explain, and help someone to get it right! Not just to prevent the mistake from being made, but to learn why it was a mistake.
I feel that the Truth of the Gospel will certainly set people free, but to me, you cannot tell people about the Truth if there is not love sprinkled on top. And they certainly won't get it. It really isn't the Truth at all if there is no love.
Post a Comment