A follower of Christ absolutely cannot afford to be distressed or discouraged when our beliefs are criticized by the world. There are three reasons for this. The first is that criticism and mockery mean little when one considers that in many countries, Christians are imprisoned or beheaded for their faith. The second is that a person only has so much emotional stamina to spend - energies that should be applied to ministering to those in need and to spreading the Gospel; it would be devastating to our mission if we let wicked words steal our emotional strength.
Finally, a Christian cannot let his or herself crumble under the words of this society given the depraved everyday goings-on in the world from which we were saved and set apart. After all, only the deranged would allow criticism from Charles Manson to tear them down. We must remember when ridiculed for believing in God's role in creation, in a Christ who rose from the grave, in eternity after death, that the same society who ridicules us is the same society in which:
- people deny the Holocaust or the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre ever happened, and claim climate change is a myth,
- unborn human beings are killed without regard and with approval of governments and "rights" groups,
- an entire category of jokes is devoted to dead babies,
- women are sentenced to be raped and paraded naked through the streets of India,
- a nation prioritizes access to firearms over human lives, despite at least 230 public shootings in that nation this year alone,
- professional athletes are paid 90 million dollars a year while single parents work two jobs to support their children,
- Charles Manson has been engaged, and I can't even get a date.
This is not a world from which we should take ridicule to heart, not a society of high learning and evolved thinking. The principalities of this world are evil, but also absurd.
As I mentioned before, we American Christians should acknowledge how abundantly blessed we are in the fact that, in most cases, we only endure criticism and ridicule by peers and media for our beliefs and our Christ, when others throughout the world suffer truly horrible tortures and deaths for proclaiming Him. I think there are much fewer martyrs in America than we might assume. Kim Davis, the county clerk in Kentucky who was jailed for refusing to provide marriage licenses to same-sex couples, is no martyr. She made a choice to break the law and make a spectacle of herself, when she could have chosen to resign from her position, knowing she would have to perform duties contrary to God's word; I would not accept a job at which I'd have to sell Nazi merchandise or pornography. If one asks, "Why should she have to quit her job?", they must remember that Jesus never said following Him would be easy - in fact, He clearly states the opposite. And I would ask, "Why should she have to go to jail?" No, Kim Davis is not a martyr. Kim Davis is quite free in America. We should embrace the blessing of freedom to spread the Gospel to as many as we can before, in some dark time in the future, Christians truly are persecuted in America. We should also seek the peace of our land, as God commanded the captive Jews in Babylon through the prophet Jeremiah (29:7).
Before I make my own sole aim to angrily retort, "How dare you, with the blood of fetuses and refugees on your hands, with jeggings on your legs, condemn me for insisting there is one God who loves you?!", I must remember my commission is not to rave at the world, frothing at the beard. My job is to tell the world this: Jesus the Son of God is risen, and desires to remove their sins from them, as He did for an undeserving thing like me. My job is to tell the world that Jesus the Christ is inviting them this very day to eternity in His glorious presence, where there shall be no more dying, suffering, lying, shame, rage, or bleeding.
My job is to love the people of this absurd and wicked world, no matter what absurd and wicked things they say.
Finally, a Christian cannot let his or herself crumble under the words of this society given the depraved everyday goings-on in the world from which we were saved and set apart. After all, only the deranged would allow criticism from Charles Manson to tear them down. We must remember when ridiculed for believing in God's role in creation, in a Christ who rose from the grave, in eternity after death, that the same society who ridicules us is the same society in which:
- unborn human beings are killed without regard and with approval of governments and "rights" groups,
- an entire category of jokes is devoted to dead babies,
- women are sentenced to be raped and paraded naked through the streets of India,
- a nation prioritizes access to firearms over human lives, despite at least 230 public shootings in that nation this year alone,
- professional athletes are paid 90 million dollars a year while single parents work two jobs to support their children,
- Charles Manson has been engaged, and I can't even get a date.
This is not a world from which we should take ridicule to heart, not a society of high learning and evolved thinking. The principalities of this world are evil, but also absurd.
As I mentioned before, we American Christians should acknowledge how abundantly blessed we are in the fact that, in most cases, we only endure criticism and ridicule by peers and media for our beliefs and our Christ, when others throughout the world suffer truly horrible tortures and deaths for proclaiming Him. I think there are much fewer martyrs in America than we might assume. Kim Davis, the county clerk in Kentucky who was jailed for refusing to provide marriage licenses to same-sex couples, is no martyr. She made a choice to break the law and make a spectacle of herself, when she could have chosen to resign from her position, knowing she would have to perform duties contrary to God's word; I would not accept a job at which I'd have to sell Nazi merchandise or pornography. If one asks, "Why should she have to quit her job?", they must remember that Jesus never said following Him would be easy - in fact, He clearly states the opposite. And I would ask, "Why should she have to go to jail?" No, Kim Davis is not a martyr. Kim Davis is quite free in America. We should embrace the blessing of freedom to spread the Gospel to as many as we can before, in some dark time in the future, Christians truly are persecuted in America. We should also seek the peace of our land, as God commanded the captive Jews in Babylon through the prophet Jeremiah (29:7).
Before I make my own sole aim to angrily retort, "How dare you, with the blood of fetuses and refugees on your hands, with jeggings on your legs, condemn me for insisting there is one God who loves you?!", I must remember my commission is not to rave at the world, frothing at the beard. My job is to tell the world this: Jesus the Son of God is risen, and desires to remove their sins from them, as He did for an undeserving thing like me. My job is to tell the world that Jesus the Christ is inviting them this very day to eternity in His glorious presence, where there shall be no more dying, suffering, lying, shame, rage, or bleeding.
My job is to love the people of this absurd and wicked world, no matter what absurd and wicked things they say.
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