Don’t Undermine Your Message

My time this week has been consumed with our Vacation Bible School and enjoying a visit from our son, Kenny, and playing with our grandchildren, Miles and Katherine. As a result, I’ve not been watching very much news.

However, I noticed on facebook when I was posting ThePreachersWord that President Trump has set off another Twitter firestorm with some insulting comments about some news anchors. I checked the news last night and heard a little bit about it.

So, what’s new?

I suspect that such tweets and battles with the media will continue for at least the next four years.

For the record, I was not a supporter of Mr. Trump, either in the primaries or general election. Oh, and before I’m accused of supporting “the other side,” I didn’t support them (or her) either.

Actually, I agree with several policy issues proposed and instituted by our President. Sadly, however, his message is being muddled by petty fights with talking heads, rival politicians, and basically, anyone who attacks him.

It has often been repeated, both by the President and his spokespersons, that if he’s attacked he will “punch back 10 times harder.” Too bad. Because it diminishes some good things he’s trying to accomplish.

However, the point of this post is not really about President Trump or politics. It’s about undermining OUR message. I’m talking about the message of the cross. The message of the gospel. The message that all Christians should be proclaiming either in word or in deed.

Unfortunately, Christians have not been exempt from the political polarization in the USA. The divide is apparent when a respected gospel preacher posts on facebook a condemnation of the ugly rhetoric of the President and the thread turns into a debate.

Let’s be reminded of what the Bible says about our actions, attitudes, and speech.

Eph 4:29
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Eph 4:31-32
“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

Matt 12:36-37
“I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Col 4:6
“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”

Rom 12:2
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Eph 4:1-4
I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Observations:

(1) Christians, called by God, ought to be living, talking, and acting in a way that’s compatible with our Faith.

(2) Christians must rise above the pettiness, coarseness, and carnality of the world. We must be transformed. Not conformed.

(3) Christians need to renounce the vulgarity, crudeness, and crassness of our culture. Instead, let’s exhibit qualities of kindness, gentleness, geniality, graciousness, patience, peacefulness, and love. Love to all men. And to each other, so the world may know that we belong to Christ.

(4) Christians are citizens of a heavenly kingdom. A spiritual Body. And a holy Temple. The kingdoms of earth will eventually fall. All of them. Someday. Let’s be numbered among the redeemed.

Brethren, let’s not undermine our message, with conduct that distracts from who we are, who our Master is, and what we are to be doing. With so many worldly distractions, let’s remember “‘the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”

Amen?

–Ken Weliever, The Preacherman