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“There are five Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the Christian, and some people will never read the first four.” ~ Gypsy Smith
Jesus of Nazareth had the knowledge to respond to any possible challenge or objection to his claims. He could articulate exactly what His views were on any issue, and could do so with wit and wisdom. But suppose that He simply talked about loving our neighbors, but never had dinner with the prostitutes and tax collectors. Suppose He preached humility, but never humbled himself to wash the feet of His disciples.
Or imagine if He challenged His listeners to pick up their cross and follow Him, but never picked up His own cross and went obediently to His crucifixion. Would anyone follow Him? Would anyone give up their time, their families, their possessions, and ultimately their lives for Him?
If Jesus of Nazareth were a hypocrite, Christianity would not exist. But He is not. People look at Christ and see a standard of integrity that is utterly flawless. What do people see when they look at His followers?
In our last entry, we discussed why it is crucial for Christians to know the reasons for their faith. Before we get to those reasons, however, there is something that we need to understand about this business of representing Christ that goes beyond what the Christian may know or what the Christian may be able to explain - how the Christian lives.
Perhaps the most common objection I’ve heard in regards to Christianity is the hypocrisy of Christians. When people see that we're not practicing what we preach, that instantly casts doubt on our entire message.
A painful example from my own life involves a family member who witnessed members of his congregation heckling his mother for not giving more of her income to the church, despite her struggling to even put food on the table each night.
This happened nearly 80 years ago, but he still vividly remembers how they preached kindness and compassion during the service, only to go against everything they supposedly believed as soon as church was dismissed. My family member’s objection to Christianity is not about what Christ said, or even what His followers say. Rather, what offends him is how Christ’s followers live. The old adage is true: actions speak louder than words.
The sobering reality is, what people remember about us will likely not be what reasons we give them to believe in Christ, but how we as Christ-followers lived and behaved. We are to know why we believe what we believe, but our words will fall on deaf ears if our actions do not match our message. The importance of this can be found in 1 Peter 3:15.
“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…”
This verse is incredibly instructive for the Christian. We’ve already established that it charges us with a specific task: being prepared to articulate and defend our beliefs. But let us not forget the sentence that comes before that command:
“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.”
I do not believe that it is a coincidence that a command to revere Christ comes right before a command to effectively represent Christ. It seems to me that in order to persuasively represent our King, we must first faithfully worship Him.
At the end of the day, a person transformed by the Holy Spirit, living for Christ day in and day out, is the most beautiful, and often most convincing evidence for the truth of Christianity. Before we seek to represent and defend the truth of Christ, we need to make sure that we are living under the authority of Christ.
What This Means for the Christian…
The Scriptures tell us that “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” (2 Corinthians 5:20) Think about that for a moment - we have been tasked with representing the Living God, the Creator of the Universe and Savior of the world. That is no small matter. Reflect today on how this should affect your life, and why we must know and love our King before we can hope to properly represent Him as diplomats to a broken and dying world.
If you would like to read more about living as an ambassador for God, there are articles such as the one listed below at a wonderful website called Stand to Reason, which specializes in training ambassadors for Christ. Also, keep an eye out for the next blog post this week! Thanks for reading!
The Ambassador and the Waitress
______________________________________________________
“There are five Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the Christian, and some people will never read the first four.” ~ Gypsy Smith
Jesus of Nazareth had the knowledge to respond to any possible challenge or objection to his claims. He could articulate exactly what His views were on any issue, and could do so with wit and wisdom. But suppose that He simply talked about loving our neighbors, but never had dinner with the prostitutes and tax collectors. Suppose He preached humility, but never humbled himself to wash the feet of His disciples.
Or imagine if He challenged His listeners to pick up their cross and follow Him, but never picked up His own cross and went obediently to His crucifixion. Would anyone follow Him? Would anyone give up their time, their families, their possessions, and ultimately their lives for Him?
If Jesus of Nazareth were a hypocrite, Christianity would not exist. But He is not. People look at Christ and see a standard of integrity that is utterly flawless. What do people see when they look at His followers?
In our last entry, we discussed why it is crucial for Christians to know the reasons for their faith. Before we get to those reasons, however, there is something that we need to understand about this business of representing Christ that goes beyond what the Christian may know or what the Christian may be able to explain - how the Christian lives.
Perhaps the most common objection I’ve heard in regards to Christianity is the hypocrisy of Christians. When people see that we're not practicing what we preach, that instantly casts doubt on our entire message.
A painful example from my own life involves a family member who witnessed members of his congregation heckling his mother for not giving more of her income to the church, despite her struggling to even put food on the table each night.
This happened nearly 80 years ago, but he still vividly remembers how they preached kindness and compassion during the service, only to go against everything they supposedly believed as soon as church was dismissed. My family member’s objection to Christianity is not about what Christ said, or even what His followers say. Rather, what offends him is how Christ’s followers live. The old adage is true: actions speak louder than words.
The sobering reality is, what people remember about us will likely not be what reasons we give them to believe in Christ, but how we as Christ-followers lived and behaved. We are to know why we believe what we believe, but our words will fall on deaf ears if our actions do not match our message. The importance of this can be found in 1 Peter 3:15.
“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…”
This verse is incredibly instructive for the Christian. We’ve already established that it charges us with a specific task: being prepared to articulate and defend our beliefs. But let us not forget the sentence that comes before that command:
“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.”
I do not believe that it is a coincidence that a command to revere Christ comes right before a command to effectively represent Christ. It seems to me that in order to persuasively represent our King, we must first faithfully worship Him.
At the end of the day, a person transformed by the Holy Spirit, living for Christ day in and day out, is the most beautiful, and often most convincing evidence for the truth of Christianity. Before we seek to represent and defend the truth of Christ, we need to make sure that we are living under the authority of Christ.
What This Means for the Christian…
The Scriptures tell us that “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” (2 Corinthians 5:20) Think about that for a moment - we have been tasked with representing the Living God, the Creator of the Universe and Savior of the world. That is no small matter. Reflect today on how this should affect your life, and why we must know and love our King before we can hope to properly represent Him as diplomats to a broken and dying world.
If you would like to read more about living as an ambassador for God, there are articles such as the one listed below at a wonderful website called Stand to Reason, which specializes in training ambassadors for Christ. Also, keep an eye out for the next blog post this week! Thanks for reading!
The Ambassador and the Waitress
______________________________________________________
