A few years ago, we would often hear that the United States had entered a post-Christian era. Looking back, it’s amazing how fast post-Christian turned into anti-Christian. The Facebook pages of certain groups show an amazing number of anti-Christian memes. They don’t present thoughtful arguments, but cute little one-liners.
And the vitriol is stunning. They seethe with hatred for all things Christian. They hate churches. They hate the individual followers of Jesus. And they hate every hint that this society once held Jesus and the Bible in high esteem.
You wonder who they are arguing with. The commenters on such pages all agree with one another. It’s as if they just want the comfort of knowing that there are people out there who hate God as much as they do.
Sadly, outrage against the Jesus of the Bible and His followers is growing in size and intensity. You may have friends or family members who have been infected.
The natural, human, fleshly thing, would be to respond in kind. That means answering hate with hate. But that’s not what Jesus said to do. These are people for whom He died. Our goal is not to outwit them, make them look foolish, or show them that we, too, can curse like sailors. Our goal is to win them to Christ.
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We must not respond by hiding. We should not hide our eyes, pretending that this is just another societal phase, and that all things continue as they have from the beginning. Neither should we hide by retreating into our homes, never venturing beyond our “safe” neighborhoods, and by hunkering down in churches that refuse to engage the world.
In any case, hiding will not long remain an option. When a tornado is ripping apart your home, hiding your eyes does not make you safer. There comes a point when you can’t pretend that everything is normal. If a church preaches God’s word, Satan’s world system will attack it. Your neighborhood may seem quiet on the surface, but it is almost certainly being invaded by drugs, pornography, and hate.
Hiding is fear-based, and our response must be faith-based. Understand what’s going on. But don’t forget that the most important part of any situation is that the God who created all things is still in charge. So, do what He says.
In Matthew 5:44, Jesus gave us explicit instructions. “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”
