It's the Gospel!

"Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace but a sword.  For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.  And a man's enemies will be the members of his household" (Matthew 10:34-36)

 It is absolutely a fact of Scripture, beloved, that Jesus made a number of "hard" statements that many are loath to face and understand and accept today!  Such is the declaration that faces us in these verses.  Jesus had been giving to His disciples a discourse on the cost of discipleship.  It seems to be rather weakly understood today that a "disciple" is not just a student of Christ or a worshiper of Christ, but in actuality an active follower of Christ.  Being a disciple, then, is much more about obedience  than it is simply about knowledge and religious ceremony.

Such obedience as marks a true disciple of Christ is further proven in the arena of everyday living in a world that is lost in the darkness of sin.  Today the media would have everyone believe that we who are part of the "religious right" are fraught with all manner of social and moral and cultural shortcomings.  We are bigoted and narrow-minded, homophobic and even racist, or so says the modern media anyway.  And many of the followers of Christ have made the mistake of following such accusers right into their own trap.  We face them and try to defend ourselves upon moral and social and cultural grounds.  And that is where, I truly believe, we are making our most serious mistake.

You see, beloved, the hatred that abounds today for the "religious right" - those followers of Jesus Christ who are committed to the inerrancy and infallibility of the Scriptures, those who are persuaded that if God says it, that settles it, is not politically based at all.  The division between the "liberal left" and the "religious right" is not at heart a moral or social or cultural or especially a political problem, beloved.  It is at heart what it has always been, a spiritual problem!  You see, it is not at all political ideologies that divide us.  It is not socio-economic differences, suburban versus urban living.  It is not even one's per capita income or the lack thereof.  It is very simply the gospel of Jesus Christ!

If you want to find out what is at the heart of the hatred that liberal-thinking people have for us as Christians, all you have to do is button-hole one of them and tell that God says that Jesus Christ is the only way to eternal life. (Pause here for sound of huge explosion!)  Jesus prophesied Himself that His sacrifice on the cross would divide brother from brother, sister from sister, children from parents, and even spouses from each other.  Nor would such divisions occur along ideological lines but rather because some family members become believers, those who follow Jesus Christ, and others do not.

So what do we do?  We do the only thing that we can do, beloved.  We keep on telling men and women and boys and girls that Jesus Christ is the only way to eternal life.  Political differences will rise and wane and cultural differences will fluctuate with each new generation.  Only the gospel of Jesus Christ is unchanging and never-ending.  So let's quit falling for that old trap of arguing with people along political or moral or cultural lines.  Let's determine instead to use our energies to so live out the reality that is Jesus Christ that the Spirit of God may use us to draw the lost to Himself.

Ron