WHY ARE WE AFRAID TO JUDGE?

THE FUTURE IS HERE

The church is to be in the world as a ship is in the ocean, but when the ocean seeps into the ship, the ship is in trouble. I fear that the evangelical ship is taking on water. The world is seeping into the church so rapidly that we might well wonder how long the vessel can stay afloat. The church, which is called to influence the world, finds herself influenced by the world. If we as Christ's representatives can scarcely stay afloat, how can we expect to rescue a society that is sinking around us? We have bought into the world s values, into its entertainment, its morals, its attitudes. We have also bought into its tolerance, its insistence that we should never challenge the private beliefs of individuals, whether outside the church or within it. In the face of cultural pressures, we have found ourselves confused, hesitant to act, unable to give a loving but convincing witness to the world.

Of course, there are also many hopeful signs in our culture. There are churches and individuals that are making a great impact for the gospel, and for that we are thankful. But for the most part, we as Christians have settled down to a comfortable kind of Christianity that demands very little and therefore, in turn, makes very little difference in the wider culture. When the world takes a step in our direction, we embrace it without a twinge of conscience. But a church that has made its peace with the world is incapable of changing it.

Today there is a myth that the world is more tolerant than it used to be because it accepts "both points of view." If you were to stand on a street corner in the cities of America and ask, What do you think of Jesus Christ?" you would probably get a favorable response. He would be described as a good teacher or as one who taught us about love. But we can be quite sure that the world speaks well of Him because they misunderstand who He is and why He came to earth.

Listen to His own words: "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (John 15:18). By and large the world of today has a favorable opinion of Christ only because it misinterprets Him.

Remember this axiom: The better the world understands the purpose of Jesus' coming, the more it hates Him. What the world values, Christ despises; what He loves, it hates. Years ago, F. B. Meyer wrote, "Between such irreconcilable opposites as the church and the world, there cannot be but antagonism and strife. Each treasures and seeks what the other rejects as worthless. Each is devoted to ends that are inimical to the dearest interests of the other." And yet, just think, most Christians think it is possible to follow Jesus without turning their backs on the world!<