Living Truth | Communicating Grace
Rosaria Butterfield attended and spoke at the school board meeting of a local public school. “The only time the word ‘pervert ’ was used,” she wrote, “was against the Christians who spoke against transgender ideology.”
The late Tim Keller wrote, “Increasing numbers of people now see the Church as bad for people and a major obstacle to social progress.”
We are more and more being called upon to do life like Daniel in Babylon — feeling not at home, but called to be faithful in a pagan land where that faithfulness will come at a cost.
The current trajectory of socio-politico-ideologies and behaviors cannot persist indefinitely because they are inherently divisive and destructive. Society will reach the point of realization that such behaviors and philosophies are unlivable – they are counterproductive to the equitable community they purport to champion. Meanwhile, many lives are being and will continue to be destroyed. The Church must be ready to pick up the pieces.
As deviant behaviors and ideologies untethered from reality become increasingly affirmed and acted out among friends, relatives, associates, and neighbors, engaging unbelief will not be a course in personal evangelism per se, as much as it will be a biblical portrait and equipping of how we are to live faithfully as elect exiles, in the world but not of the world.
By God’s grace we have the resources to impactfully engage our world instead of retreating to isolation, or surrendering to cultural pressures like Pope Francis, the Church of England, or the United Methodist Church. Nor are we called to curse the darkness while we wish for the good old days.
By living truth, we push back against the destructive darkness. As we communicate grace, as Nathan Finn wrote, “we promote authentic human flourishing amid a culture that seems hell-bent on its own decline.”
Jesus said to his followers, “You are the salt of the earth” and “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” Salt and light have their effectiveness by contact and contrast. For us to passively wish for escape, or to retreat into isolation, or to dream of – or fight for – days gone by, is incongruous with our position and identity in Christ. We are a called people – called to missional living. Let us rise to this call. Let us resolutely engage unbelief in this generation by living truth and communicating grace.
Colossians 4:2-6 sets our course…
1. Orient Yourself in the Gospel
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful
2. Participate Prayerfully in Gospel Ministry
that God may open to us a door for the word
3. Live the Gospel
Walk in wisdom toward outsiders
4. Communicate with Grace
Let your speech always be gracious
“The truth is the kindest thing we can give folks in the end.”
Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Pearl of Orr’s Island
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