With social mediate ablaze and blogs ablaze and emails
ablaze and books ablaze we hear everyday about how badly, over the years, the
church has gone about being the church in America. The church hasn't left a great image in the
minds of many people. In fact, the church
seems to be its own worst enemy when it comes to living for God in the cultures
of America. We just haven't made God
look good. We stumbled some where along
the line and began to drive people away from God and His church instead of living so as to draw them to God and His church. That's just sad, any
way you spin it. All of this has gotten
me to wondering about what it means to be the church.
I wonder what it means to be Christian.
I wonder what it means to have a personal and profound faith
in God but to live out that faith with unclenched hands and with open
heart.
I wonder what it means to live in the mind and spirit of
Christ.
I wonder about how to stand for the truth of Scripture
without judging people who don't see things the way we see them.
I wonder what it means to be ambassadors of Christ instead
of Defense attorneys for Christ.
I wonder how to lavish out the grace that has been lavished
on us who claim Christ as Savior and Lord.
I wonder what it means to speak the truth of Scripture but
to do so with weeping hearts, baptized in the outlandish grace of God, instead
of alienating, by our words and actions, those who do not love Christ and who have no heart for
God.
I have always loved the heart of Paul as he went about his
calling to reach people for Christ. I
Corinthians 9:19-23 The Message
paraphrase of Eugene Peterson comes to us this way. It is the apostle Paul's testimony. I think we can learn something from it.
Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!
"To be in on it" with God and His people requires
a heart yielded to God. Jesus taught us
to pray, "Your kingdom come. Your
will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10). Truth is, if we are to pray these words then
we must live these words out, also. Living
for God, as ambassadors of Christ, is fulfilled only as the people of God take
on the job description outlined by God. We
are not here to debate people into a relationship with Christ. We are not here to defend the reality of
God. We are not here to throw the
Scriptures into the faces of those among whom we live. We are not here to arm wrestle people into
submission to Christ. We are not here to
win arguments. We are here to be the
ambassadors of the one who "emptied
Himself of all but love and bled for Adam's helpless race" (Charles
Wesley).
In John 13:34-35 Jesus gave us our marching orders. The order from the One for whom we are
ambassadors is "Love one another. As I have loved you, so
you must love one another. By
this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
"By this."
That's it. Just, "By
this." "By this everyone will know that
you are my disciples, if you love one another." Argument doesn't prove our faith. Debate doesn't prove our faith. Picketing doesn't prove our faith. Preaching doesn't prove our faith. We need these things from time to time, but
when we exercise them we had better drench every word, every act, every
attitude, every nuance, every tweet, every Facebook post, and every movement in
love, Jesus' love, the love that Jesus expressed on the cross of Calvary. The apostle Paul said it succinctly in First
Corinthians chapter 13, "If I…do not have love…I am nothing…I gain
nothing" (see verses 1-3).
May we live in the spirit of the love of Jesus. In an age of much skepticism may we be known
for the love of God in us. People may or
may not come to the Christ we love so much, but if they don't may it not be
because when they looked at us our lives turned them off to God. Instead, may our lives be a fragrant aroma of
Christ.
