“We are ambassadors of Christ here on this earth, which means this world is not our home. Our home is there with Him. He has given us the title of ambassadors to implore people to do what? Reconcile with God! We are not on this earth to sit at home and write nasty comments about Fauci all day long. Stop that nonsense! You have more important business to attend to! The only reason we are still here is to preach the gospel, not anything else. And if you find yourself more worried about anything other than about the gospel, then something is terribly wrong with your understanding of your role in this world today. We are the sons of light in a very, very dark world. You are the light of this world. The city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp-stand so that it will give light to all. Do people look at you and see light? What do they see, exactly? Because lately I feel that the church has more hatred than love, more division than unity, and they talk about everything but Jesus.”
We often talk about the great blessings of being a Christian, and so we should. We have the freedom of having been forgiven all our sins, the knowledge that a better world awaits us, and the certainty that weapons formed against us will not prosper. We revel in the joy of our salvation. We are blessed to know that greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world. These are the wonderful gifts that our minds will naturally gravitate towards.
What we need to include with our daily recounting and rejoicing is our responsibilities as Christians. We have been commanded to go to the world and preach the gospel, to be the light of the world, to not walk in darkness, to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him.
1 John 1:5-7 KJV – “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
The very word “Christian” means “Christ-like”, and John is saying it is not like Christ to walk in darkness.
Luke 6:27-31 KJV – “But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”
Just as we know that walking in darkness is not like Christ, forgiving our enemies is very much like Him. So is doing good to those who hate us and praying for those who spitefully use us.
To say we live in difficult times would be a major understatement. To say we always deal with them properly would not be accurate. We live in a time where lies are promoted and protected as truth, where fiction is presented as fact, where good and evil have exchanged definitions, and, yet, being “like Christ” is the same as it has always been.
James 1:19-20 KJV – “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”
It is much easier to be quick to speak and quick to wrath in times such as these, yet the outcome of such actions does not accomplish that which should be our life’s goal – righteousness in God. We need to remember that wrath is coming, an unprecedented time of wrath made up of immeasurable cataclysmic events upon the earth in quick succession as recorded in Revelation 6-19.
2 Peter 3:8-9 KJV – “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
Since we are to be like Christ and He is unwilling that any should perish, then that should be our heart, too. If He, as Luke 6:35 says, is kind to the unthankful and the evil, then we also should be kind to the unthankful and evil. That doesn’t mean we never stand up for our rights, nor does it mean we are silent about injustice. Instead, it means that just as Christ endured the cross, so too should we endure our sufferings in life with the joy set before us of seeing people come to Christ.
Our wrath does not manifest the righteousness of God, but it does manifest our flesh. There are times when righteous anger is justified, as are the coinciding actions. When Jesus saw the evil and hypocrisy in the temple, He overturned the tables of the money changers and merchandisers. But, we also have to remember what He was so angry about that He made a whip to drive them out.
Matthew 21:12-13 KJV – “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”
Jesus didn’t get angry over Roman taxation. He said to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. Jesus did not rage over Judas’s betrayal. He called him friend, even though He said he was a devil. What Jesus did become angry about was the misrepresentation to the world of His Father and the turning of His house into a den of thieves.
Yes, our world is a mess. Yes, our world is upsetting. Yes, our world hates us and says all manner of evil against us falsely for His name’s sake. However, none of those things exempts us from being “like Christ”. As a matter of fact, these are prime opportunities to be more like Christ.
This world is not our home and thus we shouldn’t act like it is. We live in a broken and fallen world that needs Jesus. He is our mission in life, for only through His name can broken people be saved.
Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus
