Enduring As Christians in Anti-Christian Environments
Christian woman flies out of Sudan, meets Pope . . . (Headline July 24, 2014): “A Sudanese woman sentenced to death for converting from Islam to Christianity walked off the plane cradling her baby and was greeted by the Pope upon her arrival in Rome. She had been released thanks to intervention by the Italian government”. Also this past week:
Islamist extremists who seized control of Iraq ordered Christians to leave or convert to Islam; if they choose to stay but refuse to renounce allegiance to Christ, they will be executed. Never to be forgotten: The most horrendous persecution that occurred during our lifetime – the Holocaust – but lost in the aftermath of the devastation reeked by the anti-Semitic Hitler was what happened to a Christian minister who dared oppose him:
Dietrich Bonhoeffer - the Lutheran clergyman who had been imprisoned for publicly criticizing Nazism - was executed just before the end of WWII due to his refusal to renounce his Christian faith and issue a public apology to the effect that he had been wrong about Hitler.
Folks, we are so fortunate to live in the land of the free! If there ever was a Christian nation, it would have to be the United States of America – founded upon the principle of religious liberty. Indeed . . .
The majority of pilgrims who were among the first to come to America, and others to come later, were freedom-loving Christians – Protestants fleeing religious and economic persecution at the hands of governments run by Church-State hierarchies!
“In God We Trust” was more than a slogan when America was founded. Times were hard, and nothing worthwhile came easy. Early settlers depended on God and trusted Him to direct their paths. This is not to say that these brave men and women were perfect in their relationship with God or in their dealings with native people. They, like many of us today, had their faults.
Yet, in spite of our faults as a nation, no nation on planet earth has made the moral progress we - a country blessed by the Lord - have made over a relatively short period of time spanning about two and a half centuries!
What a privilege it has been for you and me to have lived for the most part in the 20th century during America’s greatest advancements on so many fronts – religious, racial, socio-economic, educational, political, and technological. However:
Now that this “nation under God” has come so far in so short a period of time, do we as a nation give God the glory? Yes and no. Some do and some don’t.
Sadly, a growing number of citizens of this the greatest nation on earth seem less and less inclined to recognize that “the Lord, He is God” and not we ourselves, let alone give thanks to God for blessings bestowed on us - individually and as a nation.
Rather, what we hear so much of is how “out-of-date” it is to “trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding”. No longer is thought, let alone taught, by an ever increasing number of educators and authorities in our country the time-tested truth: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord”
So, we can say that 21st century Christians, as did Christians of the 1st century, face the challenge of being Christian(s) in anti-Christian environments!
This challenge is dealt with by the Apostle Peter - I Peter 2:11-21 - against the backdrop of a non- Christian society that was becoming more and more anti-Christian – because of the urging of a religious hierarchy that felt threatened by followers of “the Way”, and therefore claimed that Christians were up to no good.
Peter urged Christians to endure for the sake of the Lord Jesus who Himself had to endure undeserved persecution. The essence of Peter’s advice was this:
Trust God, and obey divine authority because God is just . . . obey human authority even though it may be unjust. After all, your journey here is temporary.
In the ideal nation whose God is the Lord, the people trust God and serve Him, while Government trusts the people and serves them. Not so back then, not so in our day - particularly in anti-Christian cultures such as Iran, Iraq and others - even anti-Christian elements of society within the borders of our own country.
Inasmuch as the early church was in its infancy at the time Peter wrote his epistle, he urged them to affirm their identity as a beloved Christian “community” devoted to living out their Christian commitment by leading lives worthy of being known as Christian. It’s as if he said:
“Surprise those who make false accusations against you - silencing them with positive actions that speak louder than words”.
The literal meaning of the phrase used by Peter for “conduct becoming a child of God” is best rendered “beautiful actions”.
Isn’t this in keeping with the metaphor employed by the Lord Jesus when He issued the challenge “Let your light so shine before men that they see your good works and give glory to God our Father who is in heaven”?
Peter had matured to the point to where he had come to grips with reality: Christians must walk the tightrope between integrity of faith and involvement in a world that always has had, and always will have, its anti-Christian “species”!
We here today know each other well enough to say reliably that all of us at least try to practice “law-abiding” principles. We do right by others, and we expect the same from others. As Jesus told us: “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” Thus, in Christ, we have been set free to live in peace and harmony!
We seek to obey God’s rules of righteousness, one of which is respect . . . for one another . . . for institutional authority – but, if we determine human authority to be at odds with divine authority, well, in a free society we have a right as well as a responsibility to challenge it and seek to change it, and if necessary, to defend ourselves from being forced to keep it – with one caveat - as long as we do not use our freedom to appeal as a way to conceal “evil” (intent or in fact) . . . .
In effect, Peter urges Christians to “participate in”, “be involved with”, “commit to” opportunities for helping to make life better for each other – not get so concerned about the act of “yielding” to (the needs of, or, the rank of) another that we “withdraw from” participation in worthy causes for fear we might make a mistake or that we might be misunderstood.
To be submissive is not to be permissive of any and every aspect of human endeavor or desire to “control” or “lord it over” another. To “live free” is to strive to be the best me I am capable of being - as a Christian and as a citizen. Not to be overlooked is the concept of “mutual yielding” taught by both Peter and Paul!
One other thing: A society must be organized if it is to be civilized, but not at the expense of allowing oneself to be demonized, tranquilized, or pulverized into “submitting” to authority in the sense of allowing oneself to be depersonalized or de-Christianized. I am a child of God, and that makes me a very important person! I am somebody!
Stand by your convictions! However, don’t let your convictions make you a “slave” to inflexibility. As I have often suggested:
Be rigid in principle, flexible in practice! Like a seminary professor of mine would say when someone tried to “pin him down” on a specific do or don’t: “It all depends on the situation.” Sometimes, folks, you have to make a judgment call!
Each of us is an individual created in the image of God - for doing the will of God, as children of God, by virtue of our relationship with Christ, Son of God. Our Lord is “the tie” that binds our hearts in Christian love so that our fellowship is like that above.
In all situations, Christian love is the message we are to convey as we seek to obey! My Christian situation, and I would hope yours too, is succinctly put by the title of an Elton Trueblood book: “The Company of the Committed”.
As members of the Body of Christ . . . Fellowship of Believers – whether we be in places of worship or in places we call home . . . workplace . . . marketplace . . . any other place - Being Christian is a matter of being in but not of the world . . . ! That, my brothers and sisters in Christ, IS the Lord’s work! Amen!
