“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.” – Matthew 5:13 {ESV}
I frequent a Christian satire blog that allows for a forum to comment on what the blogger has written. His stuff is funny but on Wednesdays, he does a serious theme which usually generates a wide variety of responses. Invariably, as subjects arise the opinions fly (thank Heaven for free speech being alive and well!) and someone will caution the need for soft-pedaling, kindness and turning the other cheek with opposing views. While all of these concepts can have biblical foundation, let me tell you what the nasty undercurrent sometimes is when people raise this yellow flag of caution:
Christians, shhhhhhh, being dogmatic and unrelenting in your beliefs is arrogant and mean spirited.
Is anyone recognizing with me that one of the reasons that our country is in such poor spiritual shape is because the followers of Christ have mastered the blush-and-hush while the rest of the world has PhD’s in chest thumping and lion-roaring? We are ordained by God to speak the truth in love, no doubt, but does that negate the possibility that sometimes our words need to be unapologetic and unyielding? I hope that you aren’t being lulled into that pseudo-Christian frame of mind wherein we shuffle our feet, stick our hands in our pockets and lower our eyes in apology because we have an eternal message of truth that isn’t popular with others. If you are not careful you may fall into the rut that finds you when your chief desire in life is to go without being misunderstood by the people around you. Being liked is a good thing. I much prefer to be liked than disliked but what do we do when we can only be liked if we fall silent where Christ has commanded us to speak boldly? Being misunderstood or maligned is painful and wholly undesirable; having said that, however, I must confess that it is sometimes unavoidable.
Christians, let me be bold here: quit slapping down your brothers and sisters who engage their spiritual spine. The rapidly vanishing commodity of gristled saints should alarm us. We are becoming a group of cafeteria line, lukewarm bowls of Happiness-Not-Holiness soup. When did it become a choice between love and courage? Humility or boldness? Confrontation or care? Can these pairings not mutually exist in a 21st century saint? Jesus was both courageous and loving, humble and bold, confrontational and caring. Since His Spirit indwells us – can we not live in the same?
Let’s agree on something: I’ll discipline myself not to judge someone’s ongoing silence as cowardice and lack of fidelity to Christ. In return, I will expect others not to presume that our boldness and unapologetic proclaiming of truth as lovelessness. Speak the truth in love…but please speak up, saints. I’m concerned that we are beginning to love the lie in silence instead of speaking the truth in love.
Christians today are so committed to sweetness that we’ve lost our saltiness. Jesus called us the salt of the earth, not the sugar.