They don't have a clue.
Ever try to watch a secular (or secularized "religious") TV "do***entary"
on
some aspect of the faith?
Or ever try to watch a Hollywood movie that attempts to ****tray believers?
Or maybe you've tried to read an article about the Christian faith in Time
Magazine or some other publication. They never get it right, do they?
They have no clue.
The world simply cannot grasp the essence, the foundation, or the point of
our lives as believers. The whole thing is a complete mystery to them.
Being strangers to the grace and power of God, the world's mindset is only
able to comprehend "religion" and so they project their ideas of religion
onto the church. They never see or understand what's actually there.
And because of that ignorance, we're often accused of things that are not
true -- simply because we are so different. Unbelievers(being savvy in
their own minds) often believe that there must always be "an angle." So
they're convinced that Christians must have some ulterior motive for
"pretending" to be different from everybody else. They think that deep
down, we're just like they are, only secretly.
The big problem is that unbelievers have no spiritual discernment. Their
confusion, then, isn't so hard to understand. Unbelievers cannot detect
the
difference between truly born-again believers and the vast multitudes who
are merely active members of religious organizations and/or movements.
Being ignorant, unbelievers tend to put all the "Christians" in the same
box.
And psychologists try to figure us out. They have a few case histories of
nutty people who went mad while trying to be religious. And so they
figure
that anyone who really believes the Bible must also be on the same path.
Even government agencies sometimes put Bible-believing Christians in the
same box as various extreme militia groups that oppose all authority
(except
their own, of course).
Ancient pagans of Rome persecuted Christian believers, calling them
"atheists" simply because they rejected the popular gods of the day. And
in
the same way, our modern world remains incredulous and suspicious of
anyone
who rejects the popular cults of (so-called) science, success, popularity
&
fame, and *** for its own sake (not to mention the ritual slaughtering of
millions of babies on the altars of the gods of pleasure).
But none of this is new.
Since the world still cannot understand or rightly explain Jesus Christ,
how
can we expect to be understood?. By grace through faith in Jesus Christ,
God made us (anyone who trusts in Jesus) His very own children. And we
know
what happened to Jesus Himself: the religious and political rulers of the
day agreed to murder Him. And they did so, nailing Him up to suffer and
die
on a Roman cross. Can we really expect to be treated any differently if
we,
too, have now become the children of God?
The Bible talks about this very thing:
In 1 John 3:1, the Scripture says: "Behold what manner of love the Father
has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore
the
world does not know us, because it did not know Him."
Because we have become God's own, the world does not know us, because it
never knew Him. (See also John 1:10-13.)
To the world's way of thinking, we must either be crazy or just plain
liars -- since they can't accept the possibility that the Bible is really
true. They cannot accept our testimony because anyone willing to believe
what God says about His Son becomes a child of God also. We therefore
cease
to be a part of the spiritual darkness at work in the world -- and our
witness to Christ is automatically rejected.
So the world remains in darkness to this day, even though millions of
fellow
human beings have been saved through faith in Jesus Christ. Choosing
darkness, the world continues to see any "new convert" to Christ as just
one
more nut that slipped over the edge into madness.
Of course, we are a little crazy.
The more we grow in faith, trusting the Lord Jesus, the more bewildering
we
become to unbelievers. They don't have a living hope, as we do. And they
can't understand our hope, our deep and continuing confidence in God, and
our joy in the face of difficulties. From the world's point of view,
there
are too many religions and philosophies to choose from, so they tend to
doubt them all.
Unfortunately, they also reject the truth of God. They'd rather believe
that the physical universe just magically appeared one day, out of
nothing,
and that life itself just popped up -- and that it then also reproduced
itself, and changed itself into all kinds of other life forms -- than
believe in the God who loves them and who saves all who respond to Him in
faith.
Choosing the darkness, they cannot see the Lord Jesus who helps us, and
walks with us. They are blind to the mighty hand of God that is at work
in
our lives -- and that also works in their own lives every single day.
It all boils down to which kind of god people will serve. We trust in
Jesus. And the world has always preferred their pagan idols and altars to
prosperity and fertility to the truth.
They preach success while we preach faith in God's plan. Rejecting faith
in
God, they trust in luck, and in chance, just as ancient pagans did. They
practice revenge and for pagan forms of justice and right. We rely on God
to repay as He chooses (hopefully in mercy to all), and we're thankful for
the justification that comes by grace to all who believe in Jesus.
So we remain literally worlds apart. Even in this present life there's a
"great gulf" separating believers from unbelievers -- and that gulf exists
in the heart and mind.
They just don't get it.
And we also soon begin to also forget what it was like to walk in
darkness.
The world continues on without so much as a clue -- even though all of
life,
and all of existence testifies to the truth of God that's found in Jesus
Christ. And we believers often get so wrapped up in our own stuff that we
forget those who still want to know what's going on.
The world searches for answers but never figures out the truth (see 1
Corinthians 1:21-25). But we can help out a little by sharing the reason
for the hope that burns so brightly within us. We can remind them that
it's
not about us -- the light is not us, the goodness they (hopefully) see in
our lives is not us, the hope does not flow out of our own amazing faith
and
saintliness.
We can point everyone one to the amazing grace offered to all through
faith
in Jesus, and simply share what Jesus did for us, and how He continues to
help us and keep us -- not because we're so intrinsically good, but in
spite
of the fact that we started out just like everybody else.
God's grace at work in us, through faith in Jesus Christ, is what makes
all
the difference.
John, the disciple and apostle of Jesus, shares this about Jesus Christ:
"He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world
did
not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But
as
many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become children of God
--
to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:10-13)
Something to rejoice about. Something good to share.
Jim
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