Two times this last week I heard Christians chastising non-Christians to act like Christians. You all know what I am talking about.
It all starts off with a non-Christian making a comment that includes a swear or another "bad" word. It may be in the work place or maybe on Facebook. It then commences with the "Christian" flying off the handle and saying that people don't deserve to be friends with them if they use that language.
First off, HOW DARE YOU! What are you trying to prove, Christian? Why are you expecting a non-believer to act like a believer. You seem to think that that "friend" has to earn your friendship by non saying certain things because you don't like them.
The same applies to the music your "friends" listen to, the other "friends" your "friend" has, and the other entertainment that person partakes in.
Scripture says "By their fruits ye shall know them." What do you think will be accomplished by forcing these people to bear fruit? Simply stated you are attempting to cover up your insecurities by forcing them to comply with your man made rules.
When you force non believers into conforming you are making it harder to spot the real believers.
Furthermore, you are also causing believers to rely on being hypocritical. What do I mean by that? You are saying that you put on the fruit and then the heart will follow. That's a ludicrous proposition let alone NON-scriptural. How do you expect to see growth in a person's life when they have always relied on showing a good front?
The Radical life isn't about forcing the people around you to conform. I'll be the first one to become heart broken when I hear someone take my Lords name in vain, but I'll also immediately pray "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." As much as it hurts they don't know what they are doing. You cannot expect a non-believer to understand what they are doing.
The Radical Life is about allowing the Spirit to work not you being someone's Holy Spirit. Stop expecting people to conform. They don't need to. They don't have any accountability. They don't need it. They aren't saved.
That's what it is all about. Use discernment and use grace. Your testimony and your reaction to people is what matters and is what defines living the Radical Life.
Great post! I have seen the same thing more times than I can count and it just doesn't make any sense. Thanks for pointing it out.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post. Good stuff. Being salt and light is so important. In the course and scope of being salt and light, we share the Gospel, the power unto salvation because we desire to be faithful to God who rescued us wretches and because we actually DO love other people, saved or otherwise. As people get saved by His grace, then He grows them.
ReplyDeleteIf we choose to coexist with unsaved and yet do not submit to His command to us to share the Good News with all, then whatever we are faced with by or through the unsaved is a natural consequence. If anything, it points to how great God is who rescued us from that lifestyle for we are no better, then or now. It's just now, we're saved by no merit of ours. That is why we love the unsaved for they are perishing and often don't even know it. We know what they don't know.
And their world-centered (not Christ-centered) lifestyle or behavior is completely predictable and to challenge it, outside of the Gospel, as you suggest, is pure moralistic (back-door legalistic) pap.
If we Christians find ourselves boasting of being open and affirming to the lifestyles of the unsaved absent any affirmative steps to present the salvation miracle, then we are reducing people to perishing playthings.
I followed your link here from the SFL Forum, and just finished reading the archives. Great stuff!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind regards Papa Bear!
ReplyDelete