Monday, November 1, 2010

Christians confronting their Culture - Speaking the Truth in Love


Have you noticed  how  the  information era is  helping us  to increasingly draw  clear  lines  between  Christian  and  atheistic values ?

In our church community there  are an increasing number of people who use  Facebook and other public media   to engage  our society   on a number of   spiritual  and moral issues .  I believe that this is a healthy  development , although  I would want to plead with Christians  to not  become  unnecessarily  ‘in your face’  when responding to   our antagonists .

The biblical  pattern of response must at all times be for us to speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15) .   Christians may find that they  may win the  skirmish  (in terms of   silencing their opponents through  superior  reasoning)  , but  then they may end up loosing the battle because of bad attitudes  or  because  of a  bad tone of voice . 

The advice of the apostle  Paul is very  helpful in this regard  : “ Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as  is good  for building up, as fits the occasion , that it may give grace to those who hear.”  (Eph  4:29)

This is not to say  that our  taking on  of public  issues  in the spirit of Christ will leave us  unscathed  by   atheists . On the contrary  if  Christ , the meekest and humblest  of all men was crucified for  His words  ,  then you may expect to  suffer the same .

Let this rule then  guide us : Give no  extra offense   to the enemies  of Christ and His Word  which so powerfully speaks to the issues of our day. Let the offense of the  Word of God  be sufficient!

3 comments:

Conrad Mbewe said...

This is very wise counsel. It is very possible to win an argument and lose a person. In Christianity, we want to win the person--especially, if that person is sincere, though sincerely wrong. We must beware of the I-told-them syndrome, which glories in speaking the truth even if it is thrust down people's throats while they chock to death. That is not Christianity and the further we can get away from it the better. Thanks for the counsel.

Thomas Louw said...

Thanks, good advice.

Danilo Sergio Pallar Lemos said...

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