Are you a fox or a fighter?

If you carry even the very scent of exclusive claim that Christ is the only way to heaven (and I do believe he is the only way; John 14:6), expect slander and challenge from the world. No revolutionary or reformer was not counter-cultural. For me to say that Jesus is the only way to heaven is to go against the present grain of life and culture in America and the world.

“For in Scripture it says: ’See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’ Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,’ and ‘A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.’ They stumble because they disobey the message–which is also what they were destined for.” - 1 Peter 2:6-8

He is the center of my life and defines everything that I am! It was the pagans that gave the early church believers the name Christians, first at Antioch because of how the apostles behaved, which was like Christ (Acts 11:26). Hence the name Christian stuck. I am a Christian. I will fight to follow! I don’t care what laws are passed in this country despite my best prayers and hopes. I refuse to compromise. I will not bend or break. I will not water down my faith. No! I will fight to conduct myself as Christ did on earth.

However…

The fiercest and deepest wounds to be inflicted will come from those who claim to be from among the camp of Christ’s followers. This trend has not stopped, but increased. The Gnostics showed up within the first four centuries of the faith writing hymns that denied the deity of Jesus Christ. Surely enough the fruits of their labor have not faded; to de-Christ Jesus of Nazareth and thereby defang him as God in human form.

“And if Christ is not raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” (1 Corinthians 15:14)

Christian, are you prepared to fight in the paradigm shift, which has already begun?

The paradigm shift is this, simply put: The time has come where people who were called to share the Gospel and to discern and declare evil as evil, will call evil as good. The world has always called evil as good, but not so for the Christian.

“For a time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want them to say.” - 2 Timothy 4:3

In more practical terms it is the choice of church versus the club and drunkenness, blessings over your enemies versus profanity and cursing of them and their name, providing for the physical need of those of lesser livelihood versus passing them by, telling someone why you hold the convictions you hold to and why, despite their possible hate-filled response and loving them anyway versus caving to the ebb and flow of culture and relative personal morality. Breaking with and/or moving out of the place in which one is co-habitating with his/her girlfriend/boyfriend versus shacking up. It is not the world that I’m describing in the negative here, it is other so-called Christians!

The worst evil and greatest reasons by which I have been tempted to abandon my faith were not from things non-Christians have done and said, but from what so-called Christians have chosen to say and do in front of me and to me.

C. S. Lewis had this to say about hypocrisy:

“When we Christians behave badly, or fail to behave well, we are making Christianity unbelievable to the outside world. The war-time posters told us that Careless Talk costs Lives. It is equally true that Careless Lives cost Talk. Our careless lives set the outer world talking; and we give them grounds for talking in a way that throws doubt on the truth of Christianity itself.”

We don’t need to be a repugnant offense due to our actions that counter our claims of having been redeemed. Mahatma Ghandi, a Hindu, said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” If Christianity is a reasonable and logical faith, then it should be coherent, and thereby natural tangible evidence in the lives of its adherents should be evident of its claims. No one likes to be lied to or taken for a fool. Hypocrisy is lying!

Christians are admonished to not be offensive, but not through compromise by any means–social, cultural, political, greed, nothing whatsoever. Rather, Christ compels us through obedience, in spite of living in a pagan society, that we are to pose no offense in the defilement of the truth of the Gospel’s affect in our lives! If you struggle, then fight, kick and buck to show why, and then overcome. As you do tell people why you fight not to conform to the ways of this world.

“Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” - 1 Peter 2:11-12

The truth of the gospel is offensive enough all its own, as it is why Christ was killed. He claimed to be what the world, Jew and Gentile, refused to believe was true. The Pharisees had him killed and mocked him, and the Romans carried out the action and mocked him along the way.

“Look at you now!” they yelled at him. “You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. Well then, if you are the Son of God, save yourself and come down from the cross!” - Matthew 27:40

But there is one radical truth that sobered me before I made any further stupid decisions to defect from what I once perceived as a hypocritical faith and religion. Yes, while there are hypocrites in churches, there are hypocrites in the the grocery stores, amusement parks, movie theaters, schools and at our jobs, but we don’t stop going to those places on account of them. Moreover, if hypocrites have shown up in church, well it is exactly where they should be and it is also high time they heed the words of the book they don’t live by and the God and Man they claim to follow and obey. I chose to stay in church and in the faith by fighting for the truth of the Gospel through obedience to Christ Jesus, despite what wrong I saw and still see happening among Christians, by Christians.

Watch and pray lest all the little foxes that lurk among us come your way. ”Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyard, our vineyards that are in bloom” (Song of Solomon 2:15).

The foxes will compel you to compromise then will slander you. And to follow slander (2 Timothy 2:17), comes the revised “religion” of the foxes; pseudo-spirituality, social gospel, sensual-centric gospel, appetites gospel, watered down gospel and so on. ”Jesus knows sex is natural, so I should be able to do what I feel, you know what feels good.” ”I can’t help it. Jesus understands.” ”Everybody does it. Who really follows everything in that old book?” ”I’m a good Christian. I go to church with my girlfriend, and sometimes I pray and open my bible. God knows my heart.” ”My parents are Christians and I would go with them to church. So I’m good to go.” The one I dislike the most is, “God is love and understands that I have needs. So ya know, I dabble bit here and there to take the edge off.”

I once heard it said that sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.

“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse.” (Galatians 1:8)

Stand your ground and do not run into fear and isolation, for that is where compromise and then shame takes hold and weakens your resolve (which comes by faith and reading of the Word of God) to stay the course and fight the good fight of righteousness in Christ. ”For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7) Rather, “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).

When I fall and fail, I will not fail to get up nor give up on my resolve to overcome what causes me to stumble. The world is fallen and refuses to accept God’s help, and get up.

I will fight to follow. I will fight for love. I will throw my life forever into the triumph of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Are you a fox or a fighter?

I am a fighter! And this is how I fight:

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).