"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." --Edmund Burke
"Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good" (Rom. 12:21, NIV).
"The Lord says: 'These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught'" (Isa. 29:13, NIV).
"He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?' declares the LORD" (Jer. 22:16, NIV).
"For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth" (Mal. 2:7, NIV).
But where there's a clear-cut command in Scripture we must fly our Christian colors and take our stand--only the coward stands aside according to James Russell Lowell: "Once to every man and nation, Comes the moment to decide, In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, For the good or evil side, Then it is the brave man chooses, While the coward stands aside."
"We must show our Christian colours, if we are to be true to Jesus Christ. We cannot remain silent and concede everything away." --C. S. Lewis
"The bottom line is that at a certain point there is not only the right, but the duty, to disobey the State." --Francis A. Schaeffer, A Christian Manifesto
By definition, you can hold opinions, but convictions hold you, according to Rick Warren: you may discuss an opinion, but you would be willing to suffer, even die for a conviction--Christ ought to be OUR conviction. We ought never to be caught on both sides of the equation, straddling the fence as it were, unwilling to declare and our stand for or make known our convictions. Silence isn't always golden!
CAVEAT: DO NOT USE YOUR INFORMED CONVICTIONS AS TOOLS TO JUDGE OR CONDEMN A WEAKER BROTHER'S CONSCIENCE--WE ALL HAVE A RIGHT TO OUR OWN CONVICTIONS AND WILL BE JUDGED ACCORDINGLY. AS AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO SAID CONCERNING THE CHURCH, "IN NONNEGOTIABLES, UNITY; IN NEGOTIABLES, LIBERTY; IN ALL THINGS CHARITY." DON'T ARGUE OR CAUSE DIVISION ABOUT MERE DIFFERENCES OF OPINION! AND NEVER BE CONTENTIONS, DIVISIVE, ARGUMENTATIVE, OR JUDGMENTAL IN SPIRIT! NOTHING SO DESTROYS A CHURCH LIKE PARTY SPIRIT, WHEREAS SHEEP ARE TAKING SIDES BETWEEN LEADERS. ALSO, WHEN SINCERE BELIEVERS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ISSUE CONFESS CONTRADICTIONS, ONE OUGHT NOT TO BE JUDGEMENTAL OR AN ACTIVIST--CUT SOME SLACK AND GIVE THE UNINFORMED AND UNEDUCATED A BREAK! THE WORLD LIES IN THE POWER OF THE EVIL ONE.
Christ will spew the lukewarm or tepid believer or churchgoer (ones having a bogus profession), out of His mouth in disgust and judgment, writes John in Revelation 3:16. But the debate goes on about just what this means. I contend that it doesn't necessarily just mean low-energy believers, or lackadaisical ones, or even ones with little sentimentality or feeling--OR NO FEELINGS. Because God is pleased with faith, not feeling anyway. What kind of believer is repulsive and ignominious or odious to God? The believer who won't apply what he knows and stand up for Jesus when a time to give testimony is at hand and someone is needed to stand for the truth. You cannot remain neutral on everything to please everyone, that's the path to failure.
People pleasers are losers! It has been said that there may not be a formula for success but the sure road to failure is to try to please everyone. If we are following Christ we will have people who despise us, hate us, and misuse us and even harass and persecute us, to the point of mocking on occasion--we will have enemies! We must be willing to lay down our life and be ready to give Christ our life in the ultimate sacrifice. We are not saved by martyrdom, but we must hate our very own life and love Christ will all our being, as number one priority. We are not to get a martyr complex, though, thinking that the more we are persecuted, the better believer we are, either--persecution comes with the territory.
There comes a time and opportunity when we not only have the right to disobey the state and even all authority but the duty. Martin Luther said, "I dissent, I disagree, I protest" and the Reformation was born. We must obey God rather than man! Taking stands is progressive and God tests us: some believers have never stood for anything! They have never been against anything, nor even for anything. We should not just see the evil and say "Why?" but see the good and say, "Why not?"
On a personal level, a real friend will not desert you in time of trouble and will come to your aid, sticking up for you. If someone bad-mouths or disses your friend, do you defend his honor or integrity or do you just let it slide and let someone cast a slur on your ally? Lincoln pitied that man who couldn't feel the pain when the whip was on another man's back.
And so the lukewarm believer (I use this term loosely because unsaved people can have head belief) is a persona non grata and in limbo or no-man's-land (out of fellowship), and no one knows where he stands so they exclude him from fellowship by virtue of God's judgment. He may have worldly friends, but he's no friend of God. Christ calls us to make informed stands for Him and to show or declare our Christian colors to the world at large as its salt and light. Christians can be wrong politically and still be good Christians! We are not to render Christ irrelevant to the marketplace of ideas and rule Him out of the equation and public dialogue though. Being silent when we ought to speak up is a grave sin of omission!
In a sense, God does respect those who take stands more than those who refuse to take a stand and remain neutral, even if they are wrong because He knows where they are spiritually and God respects moral courage more than a timid spirit. He has not given us a spirit of fear. That doesn't mean they are saved, but God can work with them and they have hope. Jesus said He'd rather have us hot or cold, but not lukewarm. To say we ought not to take stands because we could be wrong is a cop-out and fails to understand the condition of the unsaved.
Newsflash: we all could be wrong! "Whatever is not of faith is sin," (cf. Rom. 14:23) period. God doesn't expect righteous deeds from the unbeliever, period. It's the same in war, God hates cowardice and there's a special place in hell for cowards, regardless of which side they were on God expects bravery to the bitter end.
Remember, God starts small and works the way up to greater responsibilities of moral courage, but one must have moral authority as the prerequisite. We must pick our battles or quarrels, and realize that some are not worth the adrenalin and cause more heat than light, but not to get into the habit of being neutral--we must stand for something, or we stand for nothing. Stronger believers need to grow in love and weaker ones in knowledge.
The adage that sincerity is what matters doesn't hold water, for our God is the God of truth and all truth meets at the top as God's truth. In the final analysis, all of us will give account of ourselves to Christ at His Bema (tribunal or Judgement Seat) and we have no right to do evil in God's name, nor to hijack our faith and declare that our cause celebre is God-given or that we speak for Christ as some kind of vicar as the Pope does when he pontificates.
In sum, we shouldn't just memorize the Dance of the Pious, go simply through the motions, nor follow the crowd of least resistance (for narrow is the way to eternal life and few there be that find it); this means not just going with the flow (for something dead can go with the flow!) but this entails knowing Christ with first-hand experience and knowledge and desiring to live it out the faith in love. But don't be a believer who wants the benefits without the Benefactor or the perks and privileges without the responsibilities.
CAVEAT: HE WHO KNOWS THE RIGHT THING TO DO AND FAILS TO REALIZE IT OR CAPITALIZE ON IT SINS: WE OUGHT NOT TO PRIVATIZE NOR FLAUNT OUR FAITH! (cf. Js. 4:17). Soli Deo Gloria!
"Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good" (Rom. 12:21, NIV).
"The Lord says: 'These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught'" (Isa. 29:13, NIV).
"He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?' declares the LORD" (Jer. 22:16, NIV).
"For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth" (Mal. 2:7, NIV).
But where there's a clear-cut command in Scripture we must fly our Christian colors and take our stand--only the coward stands aside according to James Russell Lowell: "Once to every man and nation, Comes the moment to decide, In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, For the good or evil side, Then it is the brave man chooses, While the coward stands aside."
"We must show our Christian colours, if we are to be true to Jesus Christ. We cannot remain silent and concede everything away." --C. S. Lewis
"The bottom line is that at a certain point there is not only the right, but the duty, to disobey the State." --Francis A. Schaeffer, A Christian Manifesto
By definition, you can hold opinions, but convictions hold you, according to Rick Warren: you may discuss an opinion, but you would be willing to suffer, even die for a conviction--Christ ought to be OUR conviction. We ought never to be caught on both sides of the equation, straddling the fence as it were, unwilling to declare and our stand for or make known our convictions. Silence isn't always golden!
CAVEAT: DO NOT USE YOUR INFORMED CONVICTIONS AS TOOLS TO JUDGE OR CONDEMN A WEAKER BROTHER'S CONSCIENCE--WE ALL HAVE A RIGHT TO OUR OWN CONVICTIONS AND WILL BE JUDGED ACCORDINGLY. AS AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO SAID CONCERNING THE CHURCH, "IN NONNEGOTIABLES, UNITY; IN NEGOTIABLES, LIBERTY; IN ALL THINGS CHARITY." DON'T ARGUE OR CAUSE DIVISION ABOUT MERE DIFFERENCES OF OPINION! AND NEVER BE CONTENTIONS, DIVISIVE, ARGUMENTATIVE, OR JUDGMENTAL IN SPIRIT! NOTHING SO DESTROYS A CHURCH LIKE PARTY SPIRIT, WHEREAS SHEEP ARE TAKING SIDES BETWEEN LEADERS. ALSO, WHEN SINCERE BELIEVERS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ISSUE CONFESS CONTRADICTIONS, ONE OUGHT NOT TO BE JUDGEMENTAL OR AN ACTIVIST--CUT SOME SLACK AND GIVE THE UNINFORMED AND UNEDUCATED A BREAK! THE WORLD LIES IN THE POWER OF THE EVIL ONE.
Christ will spew the lukewarm or tepid believer or churchgoer (ones having a bogus profession), out of His mouth in disgust and judgment, writes John in Revelation 3:16. But the debate goes on about just what this means. I contend that it doesn't necessarily just mean low-energy believers, or lackadaisical ones, or even ones with little sentimentality or feeling--OR NO FEELINGS. Because God is pleased with faith, not feeling anyway. What kind of believer is repulsive and ignominious or odious to God? The believer who won't apply what he knows and stand up for Jesus when a time to give testimony is at hand and someone is needed to stand for the truth. You cannot remain neutral on everything to please everyone, that's the path to failure.
People pleasers are losers! It has been said that there may not be a formula for success but the sure road to failure is to try to please everyone. If we are following Christ we will have people who despise us, hate us, and misuse us and even harass and persecute us, to the point of mocking on occasion--we will have enemies! We must be willing to lay down our life and be ready to give Christ our life in the ultimate sacrifice. We are not saved by martyrdom, but we must hate our very own life and love Christ will all our being, as number one priority. We are not to get a martyr complex, though, thinking that the more we are persecuted, the better believer we are, either--persecution comes with the territory.
There comes a time and opportunity when we not only have the right to disobey the state and even all authority but the duty. Martin Luther said, "I dissent, I disagree, I protest" and the Reformation was born. We must obey God rather than man! Taking stands is progressive and God tests us: some believers have never stood for anything! They have never been against anything, nor even for anything. We should not just see the evil and say "Why?" but see the good and say, "Why not?"
On a personal level, a real friend will not desert you in time of trouble and will come to your aid, sticking up for you. If someone bad-mouths or disses your friend, do you defend his honor or integrity or do you just let it slide and let someone cast a slur on your ally? Lincoln pitied that man who couldn't feel the pain when the whip was on another man's back.
And so the lukewarm believer (I use this term loosely because unsaved people can have head belief) is a persona non grata and in limbo or no-man's-land (out of fellowship), and no one knows where he stands so they exclude him from fellowship by virtue of God's judgment. He may have worldly friends, but he's no friend of God. Christ calls us to make informed stands for Him and to show or declare our Christian colors to the world at large as its salt and light. Christians can be wrong politically and still be good Christians! We are not to render Christ irrelevant to the marketplace of ideas and rule Him out of the equation and public dialogue though. Being silent when we ought to speak up is a grave sin of omission!
In a sense, God does respect those who take stands more than those who refuse to take a stand and remain neutral, even if they are wrong because He knows where they are spiritually and God respects moral courage more than a timid spirit. He has not given us a spirit of fear. That doesn't mean they are saved, but God can work with them and they have hope. Jesus said He'd rather have us hot or cold, but not lukewarm. To say we ought not to take stands because we could be wrong is a cop-out and fails to understand the condition of the unsaved.
Newsflash: we all could be wrong! "Whatever is not of faith is sin," (cf. Rom. 14:23) period. God doesn't expect righteous deeds from the unbeliever, period. It's the same in war, God hates cowardice and there's a special place in hell for cowards, regardless of which side they were on God expects bravery to the bitter end.
Remember, God starts small and works the way up to greater responsibilities of moral courage, but one must have moral authority as the prerequisite. We must pick our battles or quarrels, and realize that some are not worth the adrenalin and cause more heat than light, but not to get into the habit of being neutral--we must stand for something, or we stand for nothing. Stronger believers need to grow in love and weaker ones in knowledge.
The adage that sincerity is what matters doesn't hold water, for our God is the God of truth and all truth meets at the top as God's truth. In the final analysis, all of us will give account of ourselves to Christ at His Bema (tribunal or Judgement Seat) and we have no right to do evil in God's name, nor to hijack our faith and declare that our cause celebre is God-given or that we speak for Christ as some kind of vicar as the Pope does when he pontificates.
In sum, we shouldn't just memorize the Dance of the Pious, go simply through the motions, nor follow the crowd of least resistance (for narrow is the way to eternal life and few there be that find it); this means not just going with the flow (for something dead can go with the flow!) but this entails knowing Christ with first-hand experience and knowledge and desiring to live it out the faith in love. But don't be a believer who wants the benefits without the Benefactor or the perks and privileges without the responsibilities.
CAVEAT: HE WHO KNOWS THE RIGHT THING TO DO AND FAILS TO REALIZE IT OR CAPITALIZE ON IT SINS: WE OUGHT NOT TO PRIVATIZE NOR FLAUNT OUR FAITH! (cf. Js. 4:17). Soli Deo Gloria!