Engaging the World

Mat 28:18  And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Mat 28:19  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Mat 28:20  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Luk 6:27  "But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

Luk 6:28  bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.

Eph 4:28  Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

One of the things the above verses have in common is that they all command us to actively engage others.  When Paul tells us to aspire to live quietly and mind our own affairs in 1 Thess. 4:11-12 he isn’t telling us to go off into monasteries or communes and not engage the lost; to try and isolate ourselves from sin and wait for the Lord to come back and rescue us.  Such verses are telling us to be good citizens, don’t cause trouble and work so that you aren’t dependent on others.  Let me quote these verses in their entirety, 1Th 4:11  and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 1Th 4:12  so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. 

This isn’t my point in this article but it might be worth pointing out that it is not the Lord’s will for his people to live off charity and welfare as a rule of thumb.  These things can be helpful and there are times when we all need help but it is to be our goal to take care of ourselves as the Lord allows and not assume that somebody else owes me what they have worked hard for.  I say this because as our country turns more and more socialist Christians can get caught up in the idea that people don’t have to be held accountable to work and do their share to support the economy.  Our goal should be to enable people to work, not see how many can be dependent on the government.  But we will press on.

The point I want to make in the above verses is that we have been called to engage this world, to live among the lost and not just mind our own business so we don’t have to get involved in people’s lives and problems.  As the verse in Eph. 4 says, it is not enough that we don’t steal but that we work to have money to help others.  Here we see a contrast to the 10 Commandments that basically tell us what not to do but under the New Covenant we cannot stop there but must love and do good; we cannot just “not do harm”.  We are not to just not commit adultery but love our wives as ourselves, we don’t just not murder, we love and help, don’t just want peace but pursue peace, etc. 

So we are told in Matthew 28, for instance, that the church is not to just mind its own business, worship in your heart, keep to yourself, but we instead are to go to those who don’t want to hear and lay the claims of Christ on them in the preaching of the Gospel. 

Why this matters especially today is because Christians are being told to keep their religion to themselves.  We are free to believe what we want but if it is out of step with today’s morality then we must keep silent.  There are many Christians that are happy to oblige them and there are many in the church that are also saying that we must fall into step with the social mores of the day regardless of what the Bible says.

But the problem with this is that Matthew 28 commands the church to proclaim the Word of God to the lost whether they want to hear it or not.  The call today to keep our religion to ourselves is just another attempt by Satan to keep us from telling this world about the cross of Jesus Christ.  It is an attack on Christianity itself which cannot be silent and to do so is to blatantly disobey the Lord.  The church propagates itself not by running from the world but by attacking it with the Gospel.  This is historic and biblical Christianity and we dare not be diverted from it.  We are to go into all the world, not hide from the world.  May God give us the strength in these uncertain days to be faithful to him and not fear the culture around us because it will soon be gone but the Word of God abides forever.