The letters passed back and forth among the churches after Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension give us insight into the struggle between popular religious/non-religious culture and Christianity. Paul, the most “famous” apostle traveled all over the ancient world with the sole purpose of proclaiming what he believed to be absolute truth: that God Himself had come in the flesh to show humanity the way to become “one” with God.
When I recently read a passage in one of Paul’s letter’s to Timothy, I began asking myself: what gave Paul the boldness to share his “gospel” in such a confident manner? How is it that he was not afraid to share his views and his faith in places that were already extremely religious, like Ephesus? Paul was an educated man who had experienced popular culture. He had to have known that his statements that Jesus was the one true God would be insulting to those who held different views—even his own people took offense to his teaching.
We don’t seem to have the same boldness now. Modern Christianity has become weak—we don’t have the courage or strength to share our faith with those who hold different views. We’re comfortable with “believing”—but to claim our faith as “absolutely true” is scary for us. We say it’s because we don’t want anyone to feel unloved or uncomfortable. I wonder, though, if our motivates are really so “pure.” Perhaps our reasons for “hiding” our faith—or at least not proclaiming it boldly—is that we are afraid of being rejected by society, or appearing intolerant or arrogant. Maybe we’re actually afraid of making ourselves feel uncomfortable.
It was not easy to hold to faith in Christ in the early centuries—actually, it was much harder! The difference between then and now is simple: they had either seen or experienced the power of Christ Himself. They were not just following “creeds”—they were following Jesus.
Acts records that Peter, James, and John spoke with “great boldness”—not cocky-ness but boldness. Their words and actions were distinguished in their culture not because they had adopted persuasive religious phraseology but because they had “been with Jesus.”
Paul had also seen Jesus face-to-face (God knocked him off of his “high horse”). Because of this, he said he had an “obligation” to proclaim the truth that had been revealed to him. He had found life—and that life was animating his every movement.
If we truly believe Who (not what) we claim we believe, we must not hide our light. We need to be confident that our words will hold sweet life and power to those around us, regardless of their current views.
We’re here for a purpose—and the purpose is not to escape the scrutiny of society. We’re here to “proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9)” In this hour of increasing intolerance toward Christianity, we need more than a statement of faith—we need life and power.
“The kingdom of God does not consist of words but of power.” 1 Corinthians 4:20
In Grace,
Stephanie
Stephanie Staples.com
