Not Becoming Like the World in Order to Reach the World for Christ

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I remembered reading the book "Hard to Believe" by John F. MacArthur where it presents the hard truths about the Gospel. Why is the Gospel unpopular? Just reading Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 reveal hard truths that can't be easily swallowed. The idea that the sinless Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ would die for man's sins by crucifixion is repugnant for both Jews and Gentiles. The very word "cross" from what I heard was even a taboo word. People who were crucified were considered to be the lowest of the low. The idea that an innocent man how much more the sinless Son of God would allow Himself to be crucified was a baffling idea. The very idea that He died because mankind isn't basically good is even worse. The very message of Christ on the cross and conquering it because you're a lost sinner is abhorrent. It's because people tend to believe that they're basically good or that they're good for Heaven. The Bible as the Book of the Law crushes our pride to very painful proportions.

The very issue of evangelism has never been about, "How to be popular and to reach the world." Rather, it's a command to "Forget popularity and reach out the world for Christ!" While popularity itself isn't evil - it seldom becomes an indication that you may not be right with God. Popularity itself is also fickle. Do you remember when Jesus had His popularity until He spoke His hard message that people needed to hear? People loved the miracles but hated Jesus' message. Christians are likewise told to never expect to be accepted. John 15:18-19 warns that the world will hate the Christians. Jesus talked about hatred from the world. Later, his maternal half-brother James wrote in James 4:4 that friendship with the world is to have enmity with God. Christians are friends of God and enemies of the world - yet they are commanded to reach out to the world with the Gospel of Christ!

The idea of pragmatism or accepting the worldly viewpoint to succeed is just stupid. Chapter 1 of "Hard to Believe" has one section called "The False Gospel of Self-Esteem". One very reason why I even dropped listening to the late Robert Schuller (who was mentioned in said chapter) was that he was into the false gospel of self-esteem. The self-esteem movement is incompatible with Christianity. The very idea of embracing the world's viewpoint and God's viewpoint at the same time i verys stupid. It's like becoming a physician who warns a village about their unhealthy practices while engaging in the unhealthy practices of the village. How can a doctor convince people to drink clean water if he or she decides to drink the dirty water of the villagers to convince them to do the opposite? He should be showing why they need to do water filtration programs and not to drink the dirty water and drink clean water to deliver the message.

What is the issue of not living worldly while pursuing the Gospel? Why does living worldly to get the Gospel spread a foolish idea? Just like the example of promoting healthy drinking water by drinking it - you want to show them the difference. We can compare the lost people drinking the polluted waters of the world. But for people to drink the clean water - they must be aware that their drinking water is polluted and that it's harming their bodies. Matthew 5:16 has Jesus commanding people to let their good works be made manifest. It's not a contradiction to not bragging out good works. It's all about doing good works without expecting praise and reward. Titus 2:11-14 says that God's grace makes Christians a peculiar people zealous unto good works in the present world. The Christian is supposed to show how different they are with people who are lost in sin. It's like telling people who are unhealthy from drinking the unsanitary water that their distilled water makes them healthier. But the bad news must always be there together with the visible testimony of a changed life.

Why did Christianity spread in spite of persecution (2 Corinthians 4:9-11)? Read about the worldly Romans and Emperor Nero. Emperor Nero was known to be a worldly reprobate with a great degree of sexual immorality (he was a bisexual). The Romans were known for their lasciviousness and so was much of their empire. The Corinthians had so many worldly people among them. Read about the Dark Ages' filled with such worldly people and the rise of the Roman Catholic religion as an empire. Christians choosing to be different actually did work. Christians choosing to renounce the world, to love their enemies, do good to those who hurt them, they did a lot of good works, and they had something to stand for and to die for. All these made persecutions useless. The bloodier the persecution the more Christianity grew instead. The Caesars and the Popes did everything they could. Neither the bloody circuses at the Roman Colosseum nor the "Holy" Inquisition curbed Christianity. They faced every bloody torture imaginable yet they showed how uniquely different they are from the world. They instead caused more of the audience to want what they have - something worth dying for because Christians were focused on the eternal and not the temporal. 

The same can go for Christian education that it should not be like the world. It's good to ask what is the purpose of having a Christian education and a Christian school. The school's purpose is with the hope of educating children with the important lessons in life and sharing to them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It made me go crazy when I heard that a certain Baptist school had some great issues with worldliness. How can a Christian school claim to teach the Gospel of Christ if it has the activities found in secular schools? Isn't the Christian lifestyle supposed to be modest and not minding the criticism of the world? Why should a Christian school even hold expensive graduation balls rather than have a simple celebration party? Why should a Christian school not rebuke worldly behavior among children who compete over what others have and don't have? A Christian school should show the world that it stands out this way. Let it receive a victory and give it back to God. Let it stand firm regardless of unfair criticism from the world and stand strong with a forgiving spirit. 

The truth of the Scripture is that the cost of receiving Jesus Christ as one's Lord and Savior is extremely high. Salvation is a free gift yet it's paradoxically costly. Salvation is not earned but received. However, receiving salvation means that you're going to possibly lose even your very life. Receiving the free gift of salvation means it will cost you your pride and your old lifestyle. Many people may have not counted the cost before salvation but end up becoming willing to pay the cost after salvation. The cost of salvation will cost anyone who receives it even the whole world. A heart that loves sins will refuse to savingly believe. Only a heart that is repentant of sin can truly savingly believe. But the value is infinite. This world is just passing away. Do you see how many trends fade away too fast and new trends come forward? They all go away but what's done for Christ will last forever.

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