I've been reading a great book by Brad Powell called "Change Your Church for Good." It is amazing how many pages of notes and stories have come out of my reading and I'm only two-thirds of the way through! God took me through a little journey Friday morning as I was reading a portion of the book. This statement jumped off the pages at me:
"Jesus walked, talked, worked, and lived with those in His culture. Of course, more often than not Christians today isolate themselves from those who don’t know God. They know and associate only with other Christians. Unfortunately, this makes it impossible for them to be the “light in darkness.” Of course, Christians have their weaknesses. (Yes, we do have them.) The Bible makes it clear that “bad company corrupts good character” (I Corinthians 15:33). It also warns us about joining ourselves too closely to those who don’t embrace Christ and His values (II Corinthians 6:14). However, this is speaking of our most intimate and influential relationships. This isn’t a command for us to isolate ourselves from all who don’t know Christ. Jesus revealed the Father’s love to those who were broken, guilty, and far from God. He didn’t isolate Himself from them, nor should His followers today." Brad Powell
Okay, this is good. Many times we hear that we are not to be of the world, and I have seen many Christians hiding in their Christian bubbles. That makes sense...But Paul in these two passages seems to contradict Jesus teaching about being the light of the world. It is almost as if Paul is saying draw a line in the sand and make sure you stay on your side.
Then God started to take me on a journey, which ended up just being a journey of questions He asked me...
Question 1: Who was my servant Paul writing to? That's easy; the church of Corinth
Question 2: What do you know about Corinth? Well, the city was sinful. I would compare it to that of Las Vegas of today...After all, they coined the term "Corinthianize," which means to practice sexual immorality, after those that lived in Corinth.
As I was writing this blog, I wanted to go a little more in-depth and researched Corinth a little more. I had forgotten that they had built a temple to honor the Greek goddess Aphrodite (Greek goddess of love). This temple contained thousands of priestess prostitutes and sexual debauchery was running rapid among the people of Corinth.
Question 3: What did my church look like in Corinth? Well, the church was not around a very long time. So, I would say a church full of mostly young believers that just put their faith into the Way. Then also many of them were also Gentiles with none or very little understanding of the Jewish Law.
Things started to connect in my head. Today, when a lost person comes to Jesus; we do our best to get them in the Bible, get them to church, surround them with other Christians, and engulf them with anything Godly that will grow them in their walk! After all, they are a baby Christian. They are at a very moldable time in their new birth. In Paul's letters, I see him writing these new believers to be careful in their walks or what was being taught to them in the church would be overtaken by the pull and draw of Corinth.
We are to follow God's commands in the Bible, and He has given us the Holy Spirit to us to discern His truth. Should we follow Paul's commands to the church of Corinth and stay away from the ungodly or are we to follow Jesus commands to be lights in the world? I would argue both! As young Christians, we need to let God mold us and sometimes when life is falling apart around us we need to seek refuge in the church and among Godly friends. At the same time, we are commanded to share our faith! We need to be a light among the dark.
Today, I shared in our Sunday School class that for us to live as a Christian all our life and not share our faith; it is a sin. After all, we are held accountable for not just the things we have done; but also the things we fail to do so...Pastor in his sermon later, told us that 95% of Christians do not share their faith. Wow! Now, I am not sure if that was an American, or a world or a denomination statistic; but nevertheless a scary statistic any which way. Why does Europe only have 5% of the population that goes to church or calls themselves a Christian? Even with 4,000 church plants a year, why are there still 7,000 churches closing their doors a year?
The church has better start something! When you see no lost people coming to your church, this is a problem! When the baptism pool is being used for other things more than baptisms, this is a problem! When church people are fighting over little things within the church but are not fighting for their lost communities, this is a problem! We are not to be of the world? That's fine! But we are called to be in the world! I am glad Jesus didn't say, "well, I am not going in the world"; because he would have never came...and you and I would have the grace of God in our lives!
Things started to connect in my head. Today, when a lost person comes to Jesus; we do our best to get them in the Bible, get them to church, surround them with other Christians, and engulf them with anything Godly that will grow them in their walk! After all, they are a baby Christian. They are at a very moldable time in their new birth. In Paul's letters, I see him writing these new believers to be careful in their walks or what was being taught to them in the church would be overtaken by the pull and draw of Corinth.
We are to follow God's commands in the Bible, and He has given us the Holy Spirit to us to discern His truth. Should we follow Paul's commands to the church of Corinth and stay away from the ungodly or are we to follow Jesus commands to be lights in the world? I would argue both! As young Christians, we need to let God mold us and sometimes when life is falling apart around us we need to seek refuge in the church and among Godly friends. At the same time, we are commanded to share our faith! We need to be a light among the dark.
Today, I shared in our Sunday School class that for us to live as a Christian all our life and not share our faith; it is a sin. After all, we are held accountable for not just the things we have done; but also the things we fail to do so...Pastor in his sermon later, told us that 95% of Christians do not share their faith. Wow! Now, I am not sure if that was an American, or a world or a denomination statistic; but nevertheless a scary statistic any which way. Why does Europe only have 5% of the population that goes to church or calls themselves a Christian? Even with 4,000 church plants a year, why are there still 7,000 churches closing their doors a year?
The church has better start something! When you see no lost people coming to your church, this is a problem! When the baptism pool is being used for other things more than baptisms, this is a problem! When church people are fighting over little things within the church but are not fighting for their lost communities, this is a problem! We are not to be of the world? That's fine! But we are called to be in the world! I am glad Jesus didn't say, "well, I am not going in the world"; because he would have never came...and you and I would have the grace of God in our lives!
No comments:
Post a Comment