GodSprings - 07, March, 2017

Who Am I? Sneaky Christian or Confronting Christian?

Blessed are the those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Matthew 5:10-12

A man once came to Tertullian and he said to Tertullian, “I’ve come to Christ, but I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do about my job. I have a job that I don’t think is right but I don’t know what to do about it.” And then the man said to Tertullian, “What can I do? I must live.” Listening to this, Tertullian replied, “Must you?”

All the beatitudes that we meditated before this are inner attitudes that a disciple who follows Jesus should have. As we have seen earlier, the Jews had an external religion and Christ was giving them an internal one. This beatitude is also an internal one. An attitude of willingness to be persecuted. An attitude of choosing loyalty to Christ in the world we live.

This is not easy. All the beatitudes that Jesus wants us to have are intolerable to the world we are living in. This world cannot handle someone who’s poor in spirit because it lives and professes about a state of pride and self-promotion. It cannot tolerate the meek since it honours pride. All of these attitudes when they exist in a disciple they are going to counter the system that we are living in.

The world is the same as it was before. But we have changed. We have lowered God’s standards. We want to be popular. We want to be famous. We want to be acceptable. And this want leads us to compromise our lives, our beliefs, our traditions and our values.

If we are going to live out this beatitude life, then we have to be prepared for a reaction. You can’t live a righteous life in an unrighteous society without receiving a reaction.

This is the first sermon and Jesus tells all those who want to be his disciples that there is a price that they have to pay to live in his kingdom. It isn’t going to be thrones and crowns of fame and prestige but it will be a crown of suffering and eternal glory.

If you are deciding to live upon this kingdom life that Jesus tells you, then be prepared. Be prepared to be lonely in some crowds. Be prepared to disrupt your home and social life. Be prepared to be harassed.

Today are we bold enough? Are we willing to live the Christ attitude in the midst of Christless world? Timothy Keller in one of his sermons says, “we justify ourselves by saying, If I’m popular with them and they like me a lot, I can sneak gospel in.” Timothy Keller when dealing with this portion says that God never needed sneaky preachers. He doesn’t need sneaky evangelists. He doesn’t need sneaky witnesses. He needs those who are willing to confront.”

Am I a sneaky Christian or a confronting Christian? This lent can we be bold enough to be hated by the world for living out the attitude that Jesus demands?