The Church as a Contrast Society
(Part 1: Contrasting Standards)
Some people claim that there is a Chinese curse that says: “May you live in interesting times”
I can’t actually find an actual Chinese curse that matches that, but I get the meaning… and it’s true — We live in interesting times.
Over the past few decades the church has had favor with the world. Being a Christian (at least in America) was actually popular!
- We had a lot of cultural influence…
- we were courted by politicians and political parties for our influence…
- We even had some small influence over pop culture with crossover bands like Jars of Clay and Switchfoot appearing on Jay Leno and Saturday Night Live…
- 9 years ago the surprise blockbuster movie of the year was “The Passion of the Christ,” a two-hour walk through the last 12 hours of the earthly life of Jesus.
For those of who are Pentecostals, the past few decades were especially good. We had been the people from the wrong side of the tracks… the poor-people’s church… (well, maybe that part is still kinda true)… the misunderstood holy rollers… then the Charismatic movement emerged and took Holy Spirit manifestations like speaking in tongues, miracles, and healing into mainland protestant churches, the catholic church and all over Christian television. Pentecostalism became the largest and fastest growing segment of the church worldwide, and we were suddenly popular… acceptable… respectable… even a little bit mainstream!
And now, in just the span of a few years, the tide of public opinion has turned. The pendulum has swung back in the other direction, and we are struggling as we find ourselves no longer having favor, no longer popular, acceptable and respectable. When the Barna Group did a survey in Hawaii in 2011 they discovered how the surrounding community viewed the church, and it wasn’t pretty:
- hypocritical
- judgmental
- too political
- boring
- anti-homosexual
- old fashioned
And here’s the problem: we really, REALLY, LIKE being popular, acceptable and respectable. We like to be liked. We have become accustomed to being in favor so much that we have learned to go along to get along. Christians — church people — get divorced at about the same rate as non-Christians. [I know… I just crossed over into meddling now.]
Christians seem to have lost all ability to discern the spirit behind some popular entertainment; to the extent that instead of the church being the moral compass and conscience of society, we have become passive participants in the new secular religion that holds tolerance as its highest value.
Is it any wonder that professing Christians confronted with divisive and controversial moral issues accept the world’s views and take the side of those issues that directly contradicts the Bible, when they have consumed a steady diet of music, television and film that promotes an anti-Christian worldview? Sometimes it seems that we have turned off our moral GPS and allowed ourselves to be led down the path of least resistance, by well-written sitcoms, catchy song lyrics and movie plots that glorify, glamorize and normalize the very things we know are offensive to God.
I am talking about the same church that produced William Wilberforce in England in the early 1800s — a man who became a Christian whose conversion led to the abolition of the slave trade throughout the United Kingdom.
I am talking about the same church that produced the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who preached to the nation with such firm conviction and righteousness that he led a movement that ended institutional racial discrimination in the United States.
Until recently, the righteous voice of the church lovingly speaking hard truth as the national conscience was applauded, even by non-believers. Have you seen any of the online news sites lately discussing the hot-button moral issues of the day? They are filled with people from our community, our neighbors and fellow citizens of Hawaii spewing venom and hatred toward everything we believe.
The words most commonly used: ignorance, hatred, intolerance and bigotry.
Get used to it. This is the new normal.
The era of popularity is over, and now you will be branded if you take a stand for the kind of absolute truth and non-negotiable morality found in the Bible. Now, I am not talking about being mean-spirited and nasty… I am not talking about picking arguments with people over your own ideas and beliefs — I am talking about having the courage and moral conviction to say “this is the hill I am willing to die on. This is the issue on which there can be no compromise.”
You need to settle it, right now, today, in your heart and in your mind, that you are not of this world and its system; you are citizens of a heavenly kingdom. 1st Peter Chapter two describes us as “strangers and pilgrims” in this society. As nice as this place is, as much as we love Hawaii, this is NOT our home… it is a temporary place we are passing through on our way to our ETERNAL home!
And you need to settle it, right now, today, in your heart and in your mind, that from this day forward, you can’t expect the secular world to love you and agree with you.
John 15, starting in verse 18… (Jesus said this)
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
(Resentment: crabs in a bucket… if you have failed morally, you sometimes tend to look at others who have somehow NOT failed with suspicion and disdain.)
20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.
(We ask: WHY ME? and Jesus says, WHY NOT YOU?)
21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.
(IGNORANCE: The opposition, hatred, and ridicule you and I might face for taking a righteous stand is often excused out of ignorance. Many people today have never opened a Bible, never heard the truth, and have formed their opinions based upon what others have TOLD them about Christians… but…)
22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.
(“If I hadn’t come and told them all this in plain language, it wouldn’t be so bad. As it is, they have no excuse.” Now Jesus removes the excuse of ignorance! Romans Chapter 2 teaches that, “…when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law… They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts…”)
23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
(Even though some people see the miraculous, experience God’s power and presence, they still hate God… without reason. Don’t expect them to feel any different towards you, especially when you oppose them morally or politically!)
This is the new normal!
It is not my intention to scare you or discourage you with this passage… quite the opposite!
The history of the church clearly shows that the church grows faster and grows stronger during times of opposition and persecution than during times of favor, popularity, acceptance and respectability.
Opposition forces us to circle the wagons, stand shoulder to shoulder and love one another like never before!
Persecution causes us to pray more fervently, dig deeper into the Word, and get serious about what we believe.
None of us knows how this latest clash of moral views will turn out. We hope righteousness prevails, BUT — no matter how the issue is decided — win or lose, we will not be popular for taking a stand.
You need to settle it, right now, today, in your heart and in your mind, that you are not of this world and its system; you are citizens of a heavenly kingdom… strangers and pilgrims —
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.”