First and foremost: We follow Christ alone. Without any apology, we serve Him at whatever cost to our comfort, convenience, or even our lives.
Furthermore, we assert that most Westerners have no clue who He is, nor who He was during His time on earth. If you don’t take the time to seek a full immersion in His ancient Hebrew cultural and intellectual orientation, you have no hope of understanding anything He said or did. Granted, that means we spend the rest of our lives digging into the details of that ancient Hebrew heritage, and we have to sponsor good scholars among us who will lead the way. Still, this is the task before us in forming churches. We help each other cling to God.
Meanwhile, we also assert that a firm heart-led commitment to Christ as Lord will take you farther down the path of truth than all the scholarship in the world. Any one of you, with a heart-led wisdom and the guidance of Biblical Law, could easily solve most of the world’s problems.
But that’s not our mission. The world won’t listen anyway. Scripture warns us quite openly that things will go from bad to worse as time passes toward the day Christ returns. We are warned not to waste time seeking to make the world a better place in that sense. Instead, we seek to advance our own personal adherence to Christ’s teaching (AKA Biblical Law) as the only mission worthy of His name.
So the issue we face in this fallen world is not fixing anything except our own individual compliance with divine revelation. Everything else is a mere tactical exercise. We seek His glory through obedience and the harvest of His blessings in shalom. Whether we play along, and for how long we do so, is just a matter of heart-led guidance in seeking what most glorifies our Lord. It’s a matter of seeking in prayer and meditation who we are in Him so that we can discern how to act in each context. Our only question is: What has He called us to do?
We don’t give a damn how it turns out on a human level. We don’t care what other people consider to be wise or effective, and their feelings don’t matter. Indeed, since our lives don’t matter, neither do theirs. The whole issue is peace with God seeking His glory. Where is divine justice? It cannot be found in the reasonings of any human who builds on a foundation other than the Christ who calls us into His service. Nothing else matters.
We are swimming through the sewage of human-based lies about who Christ is and what He stands for in this world. The greatest blessing we can give to anyone is to walk in the truth of what you know in your heart. The consequences of that belong to God. Don’t you worry about how it plays out, except to watch so you can discern what is required of you next.
Granted, the vast majority of the time we should obey Romans 12:18 — “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men” (NKJV). That’s a fundamental part of divine guidance in your heart. However, before you ever have to face it, you should expect that it doesn’t always depend on you. Living in “peace” means the shalom God offers to all who seek His face. The image here excludes certain conduct and beliefs. If you don’t see that, then you are blind. God doesn’t bless what seems reasonable to humans; He blesses only what He has revealed as appropriate.
So you will feel obliged to swallow some crap in some contexts, and reject it in others. God rules, and His rule for you begins in your own heart of conviction. No apologies. Nobody says you can’t feel their pain with them, but if you know their pain comes from rejecting God’s truth, you’ll have to close your heart to their cries. We understand the weaknesses of our own flesh, but you cannot go where God says “no.”
Most human suffering is self-inflicted. The only answer is a heart-led commitment to Christ. Without that, your hands are tied by God.
“Nobody says you can’t feel their pain with them, but if you know their pain comes from rejecting God’s truth”
Most helpful for me in my work. I have a gift of being able to sense pain in other people. I can shut it down consciously but, by doing so I turn off the fount of God’s blessing which I could share. This creates a problem because I made a decision a good while back, not to compartmentalize after the Western pattern. I call this being ” wide open”, this had serious consequences of which I shall share an example; if I’m in a crowd, I can sense the cumulative mass of the pain that results from sin, it is so overwhelming that I would have severe panic attacks and send me running.
I came to the conclusion that it was better to avoid people until through prayer, Pepsi fasting and some other uniquely personal (read weird) “rituals”, God would guide me forward so, I can use this formidable gift for His Glory without the side effects. Now, I need to try this buffer “Block all input sourced from rejecting God” Prime Directive for Spiritual Gift. Very good this could be what I’ve been after. Now for the grunt work that these things require “if at first you don’t succeed, keep on suckin’ til you do succeed”.
That one line may have been of little importance to you while writing but, it opens a door for me.
We are one body working for God’s Glory and we never know what little thing we do, that can be hugely important to another. So as the gall bladder I thank the follically challenged scalp.
You can’t help people who reject the only thing that will help them.
That Romans 12 verse has been misappropriated to excuse a lot of milquetoast behavior. It’s hard to see God for who He is when so many of His followers are spineless and a little too eager to please.
Agreed, Jay. There’s a whole mythology by which Westerners just assume the State owns everyone, and the State recommends the milquetoast behavior to avoid competition.
“Can’t someone else do it?” Suggested motto for American Christians. Maybe it should be “can’t we pay someone else to do it?”
Yeah, we don’t go on missions, we send others.