Christian Living

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Is the gospel life-changing? Does it affect a person’s eternal destiny? Is it going to improve the human race, beginning with the individual? Is the gospel God’s plan for salvation?

Most Christians would answer yes to each question, but do our actions bear out that belief? Do we actively promote the gospel publicly? The honest answer to that must surely be no, and non-Christians won’t believe in something they hear little of.
Some risk all for what they believe. Suicide bombers blow themselves up almost daily in Iraq and other parts of the Middle East. To them the cause, however misguided, is more important even than their very lives!

A few from the rich western world will take great risks for what they believe – but it isn’t Christianity. The activist lies in front of an Israeli tank, or helps civilians who are under crossfire; the journalist goes into a war zone risking death, just to get the frontline news onto TV screens.

In the Early Church the Christians were equally adventurous – but for Christ. When forbidden to preach in public they did it anyway, knowing they would be arrested; some were flogged and put in jail. Some died by stoning for proclaiming the gospel, but they didn’t care, they were confident of where they were going.
Today? Most Christians won’t take the slightest risk for Jesus. They are too scared to even put a sticker on the car, lest some angry unbeliever ruins its beautiful paintwork. Well, didn’t the preacher say a nice new car comes from following Jesus?

The live-for-today western world watches as Christians huddle in the churches, protected from nasty interjectors and hecklers. The church is cosy and safe isn’t it? The biggest risk is of an upset stomach from that after-church coffee made from unboiled water.

How will an unbelieving world embrace the gospel when they see so few prepared to stand for it? What respect will they have for a gospel which so few are willing to proclaim outside the safety of the church platform and pew? Even there, the chances are non-believers will not hear a true gospel message.

They surely ask themselves: “Why should I follow something that is not shouted from the rooftops?” – which it ought to be.

The world is watching and they are not impressed with what they see. If it’s inspiration we seek, we need to read again Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - Acts too, and think on how far removed we are today from those full-on believers.

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