Monday, September 4, 2017
564 - It's the Truth, Stupid
Spirituality
Column No. 564
September 5, 2017
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
September 5, 2017
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
It’s the Truth,
Stupid
By Bob Walters
“…in your hearts set
apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks
you to give a reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness
and respect…” – 1 Peter 3:15
Civil
discourse in the modern public square – discourse not laced with name calling,
belittlement, and insult – is getting harder and harder to find.
Can we agree, as Christians, that
it’s a mistake to take that ad hominem, acid-throwing tactic and try to
represent the love, salvation, and freedom we have in Jesus? And since absolutely everybody these days seems
to think they know the truth; how is one supposed to act when one actually does
know The Truth? To that end we find
abundant help not only in the authoritative words of Jesus, but also in the disciple
Peter’s good advice for assuredly proclaiming and witnessing to the truth of
Jesus Christ: especially that “gentleness
and respect” part.
The simple trick
I think is obvious: love others, don’t insult them. We insult others maybe not so much because we
think they are lesser humans than us, but because we fear their ideas; their
ideas somehow threaten our lives. That’s
why Jesus’s command to “love God and love others” blends so nicely with His
constant instruction to “fear not.” We regularly get our Christian feet and faith
tangled up trying to figure out if we are truly and primarily supposed to “fear”
God, judgment, wrath, punishment, Hell, and Satan. All while we routinely and inexplicably ignore
Jesus’s greatest calming gift: “fear not.”
That means, “He’s got this.” Being a true Christian means we trust that He
does.
It also means,
“Don’t fear other humans.” Eternally,
there isn’t much damage they can do to us anyway, despite their ability and
sometimes intent to make this life as miserable for us as possible. No doubt
there are bad people and bad situations; there are “wars and rumors of wars”; there are demons, disasters, diseases
and disappointment. Caution is prudent;
sin and destruction are rife in this fallen world.
Yet the most powerful difference
Christ can make in this life, right now while we are in it, is to remove fear,
which He does with love. It is our own fear
that allows others to control us, robbing both our ability to love and the
freedom we are promised in Christ.
Think about that not only in the
secular venues of politics, media, academia, and popular culture, but also
listen carefully – and discerningly – to Christians preaching the controlling
gospel of fear, guilt, punishment, etc.
The freeing and true message of Jesus is grace, humility, forgiveness,
mercy and love. Be thankful, not scared.
“Fear God,” I get it; sin is bad.
But love Jesus; love covers our fear in this life the way Jesus covers
our sins before God. Barbed name-calling,
while it may win an argument or an election (e.g. “It’s the economy, stupid”, 1992),
never generates love.
Love is as simple as gentleness and
respect, and it is eternally wise to know joy comes when love overcomes
fear. Boldly state your hope in Christ;
it’s the smart truth.
Walters
(rlwcom@aol.com) says “Happy 30th birthday” today
(Sept. 5) to his son Eric who posed the question in late summer of 2001: “Dad, why don’t
we go to church?”