Ben makes a great point that Christians tend to confront the chaos of today’s world one of two ways: 1) we isolate to keep ourselves from having to deal with it (my personal favorite) or 2) we infiltrate by going on the attack of the evil around us. Maybe the “3rd I” Ben was looking for was that we should be imitating Christ.
For whatever reason, I just found it interesting today that the next book in the Bible after the Gospels is “Acts”. As Christians, our actions should encourage those around us to learn more about Jesus and to want a closer relationship with Him. And that should be true of everyone, regardless of their righteousness or alliance with your beliefs.
Yes, we should act in a way that encourages non-Christians to grow closer to Christ. But we shouldn’t forget that our Christian brothers and sisters should also have their faith reinforced by how we continually act in our faith.
Sometimes I do think we are a little too much like Peter, thinking Jesus needs more of our help. Jesus doesn’t need us to convict others of their sins. He just needs us to encourage them to have a conversation with Him. He’s pretty good at handling sin.
But He does need us to do our part. Information has never been more easily available, but information and truth are two very different things. The information is becoming less and less reliable as it becomes more available. And our complacency condones the world that it creates (get you some of that alliteration Pastor Ben!).
We do have to act. Act in a manner worthy of the calling. Act with humility and gentleness. Act with patience and tolerance. Act diligently to preserve the unity of the Spirit.
