It’s funny (and not in a comedic way) that in this day and age you can say you’re whoever you want to be, think what you want to think, but only so far as it lines up with a certain kind of world view. There are people who preach love and tolerance, and float the ideas of allowing people to think for themselves, but when your worldview is overtly Christian, believing the Bible to be the God-Breathed truth, and you express your belief openly, you’re labeled all sorts of names (ending in “ist” and “got”). Loved ones, there’s a problem here, isn’t there? True, biblical Christian thought desires to reason, but not force people to believe, while the so-called “free-thinking” thinkers want to force their ideas on those who oppose them. So it begs the question: why?
Jesus states it simply in John 3:18-20: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.” The truest statement someone can make when we proclaim the Gospel is simply this “you’re a threat to my way of life.” A person living for Christ, full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control (the Gifts of the Holy Spirit) is a threat to someone “living their best life” on their own terms who shows none of these things. In surrendering to God and doing things His way, we prove Him to be correct, and, as men love darkness rather than light, they try to shut the light that exposes their darkness off.
So be a threat to someone’s way of life, not by forcing ideas, but by living a life worthy of your calling. By letting the Holy Spirit work through you by way of producing fruit, as you abide in Christ. Some will see and know. Some will desire to remain their own gods, and ignore all evidence. You live for Jesus and proclaim His mercies and His Gospel everywhere you go.
John 15
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’
“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
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