Skip to main content

Driven by Fear

Too often I believe that we Christians are driven by the one thing we are commanded more times than anything else not to do; fear. We fear our rights being taken away. We fear the liberals (or conservatives, depending on your political leanings). We fear the LGBT crowd, Black Lives Matter, Marxists, and pretty much anything that doesn't look and sound exactly like us. 

Simply put, we Christians seem to be afraid of more things than most people.

This is, of course, antithetical to what it means to be a follower of Christ. To follow Jesus should mean that we are a people driven out of love, compassion, and mercy. We are commanded throughout scripture over and over again to not fear, but here we are anyway driven so often by fear.

Jesus said that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church. Do we actually believe that? It would seem to me that many of us don't. We think that just because the wrong candidate is elected president or if the wrong judges are appointed Christianity will fall. You might think that is an exaggeration, but after surveying Facebook and Twitter this past election year I don't think it is. 

Does this mean that we should throw caution to the wind and welcome any and every idea, movement, and message with open arms? Of course not. Some of the things we often fear are in fact negative things that promote ungodly behavior and morals. Still, the response should never be to recoil in fear but to engage thoughtfully with love, holiness, and virtue.

Fear drives us into an "us vs. them" mentality. When we fear a movement or idea we inevitably end up fearing and hating the people who hold them. That is unacceptable. As Paul said, "Our enemy is not flesh and blood." People, no matter how different they are from us or even how much they may hate us, are never the enemy. They are the mission.

Fear dictates that the only way to survive is to grab power and hold onto it for as long as possible. I think this explains quite a bit about our obsession with politics; it's all about power. The problem is that Jesus expressly condemns hungering for power "like the Gentiles do." He commands us to follow his example, to serve and give our lives for others.

Does this mean that we should, as Christians, abstain from political discussion and activity altogether? I don't think so. It means that our goal in politics and government is not the same as the world's. Our goal, rather than power and control, is the benefit of our neighbors and communities. It's hard to lose at a game you aren't even playing.

Remember that our trust and hope is Jesus alone. Whatever nasty things the world cooks up to attempt to destroy us or undermine the church, we can rest easy knowing that Jesus has overcome the world. When we fall into fear we are essentially saying that we trust more in the power of darkness than we do the Messiah.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Augustine of Hippo: Historical Friday

We pause our overview of the history of Christianity to talk about an extremely influential figure, whether we realize it or not. Augustine of Hippo, so called because he lived in the town of Hippo Regius, has had a tremendous amount of influence on Christianity in the western world. Many of the theological conversations we have in our churches today have been directly shaped by this man. Many of the terms and ideas we throw around originated with Augustine.  Today we are going to look at SOME of the ideas that Augustine has shaped. In reality this man has touched in some way or another every aspect of Christian thought. If I had to choose the most influential people on Christianity outside of Jesus and the Apostles, Augustine might very well be number one alongside Martin Luther. Before we get into the theological ideas, a brief biography is in order. Brief Biography Augustine's story is actually very interesting, one I cannot hope to do justice here. If you are intereste...
Post a Comment
Read more

Justice

Our view of justice is narrow and limited. Typically when we, as Christians, talk about justice we are really only referring to punishing wrongdoers for their crimes. While that is certainly a part of justice that isn't the only thing. In the Bible justice consists of much more. Consider the book of Amos, one of the minor prophets and therefore a book that most Christians barely touch. Amos is announcing judgment against the nation of Israel for their infidelity to their covenant with God. What do you think is the most repeated indictment against Israel? Interestingly it's not idolatry, sexual immorality, or war although these things are mentioned. The primary sin of in Amos is Israel's neglect of the poor and their oppression of the needy. Over and over again Amos declares that judgment is coming to Israel because of their treatment of those less fortunate. The poor are trampled and the needy are crushed. There is no justice in the land. Biblical justice includes both crim...
Post a Comment
Read more

Be Kind

This last Sunday I was asked to preach and I struggled for a while with what to preach on. It's always difficult when you are filling in and everyone else knows you are filling in. You don't want to overlap too much with the current sermon series, but you also don't want your topic to be so unrelated to what's been going on that it has no impact.  I found inspiration simply from scrolling on Facebook. People, and it seems especially Christians, are mean.  Now of course not all Christians are rude and combative, but there are a shocking number who are. We argue in Facebook comments, send hateful messages, and generally act just like the world. This extends beyond the realm of social media and into our day-to-day interactions with so many. The Sunday lunch crowd at restaurants is infamously the worst tipping and most disrespectful, and these are mostly Christians who have just come from church. We need to be kind. Kindness is a fruit of the Spirit, but it is one we often ...
Post a Comment
Read more