Is the church totally defeated? Maybe yes

The church in Corinth was so deeply divided that they were almost a lost cause.  “The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already.” I Corinthians 6:7

Lawsuits aside, I believe that that may be a description of much of American Christianity.  We have been completely defeated. 

I am greatly distressed by the nonsense that is being spewed out by both sides of the political divide and that has taken a strangle hold on the church in America.  It seems that the church is little more that the religious arms of the two political camps.  As a Christian you are asked or even expected to side with the left or the right.  For some there is the expectation that your political convictions will trump any and everything else.  It seems to be the same for either side.

Has the church lost its ever-loving mind?   EVERYTHING has become political.  So, for all you Diotrephes wannabes that insist on having a fight on every political subject let me explain something to you.

DBR. 

If you want to run to a tattoo parlor and have that inked on to your neck, forearm, face or lower back go ahead, I will wait.   It is ALL ABOUT DBR.  Ask yourselves in 10,000 years will it really matter if the President twitters about employment in the NFL?  In 10,000 years will it matter if there is a statue of George Washington, Jefferson Davis, Abraham Lincoln or Teddy the Wonder Lizard on the town square?  Will it matter if an Asian American by the name of Robert Lee is not broadcasting a football game because his name sounds like a long dead officer from a losing army, or that a school library rejects a gift of Dr. Seuss books because it was claimed that they had racist themes?  In 10,000 years, none of the skubalon (go do your Greek home work) we are getting excited about will matter.  But DBR will matter.  In 10,000 years, everything we are getting so juiced up about will be as meaningful as the chatter of 12-year old girls at a Justin Bieber concert.   ZERO importance. 

Once upon a time there was a wise, brilliant, teacher who got hooked up on DBR.  He lived at a time of social injustice that would shock us by its intensity.  In literally every area of the culture it was rotten from top to bottom.  The head of state was a pervert; the ruling parties had the moral integrity of a pimp.  The sports and entertainment industry was flooded with sex, violence and greed. The religious systems were driven by money, power, ego and one-ups-man-ship and were seen as a way to get ahead and get what you want. (Some things never change).  No part of society was exempt from moral rot.

This great teacher apparently never lead a protest, never wrote a directed attack on the political powers of his time, and said only a little about how evil the world was. 

But here is what he did write:   

^“But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” 

And

“More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith…” 

And he wrote this:

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 

That is what matters, DBR.  DBR!  The Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

I hear Christians, left and right, complaining, especially in social media, about the mess this country is in and how evil the other side is, how Christians must support the President or the players for not standing for the National Anthem.  Articles contrasting Colin Kaepernick and Tim Tebow have been used by Christians to argue their side of the story.  (Please see blog below)

If I may paraphrase Paul: “What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Kaepernick”; another, “I follow Tebow ”; another, “I follow Trump”; still another, “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided?”

Stop talking about how bad things are and how bad the other side is.  Instead talk to someone who is a non-Christian about the amazing grace of Jesus.  If ½ the energy Christians expend on political wrangling were directed toward making disciples, we might be experiencing revival.  Yes, there is a social aspect to the Gospel, but that change will come from the Holy Spirit, not your social media post.  So, let me offer a suggestion.  SHUT up! 

 If you think I struggle with misguided priorities then look me up in 10,000 years and tell me then about how important it was to protect a statue or support NFL players’ protest.  

Take this test

Answer yes or no to each question:

Part 1

1. Do you daily pray for lost people to come to Christ?
2. Do you daily pray for ministers/evangelists/ missionaries to be effective in the work of making disciples?
3. Do you see your recreational and social outlets as opportunities to engage lost people with the goal of loving them into knowing Jesus?
4. Do you believe to the core of your being that a person who dies apart from grace will spend eternity in unspeakable misery?
5. Do you have the ability to clearly and concisely show a person how to become a Christian?

Part 2

1. Do you daily engage in social media on social political issues?
2. Do you degrade or ridicule people with whom you disagree in hostile, aggressive or unloving ways?
3. Do you keep to Christian groups (in real life not virtual) for all your religious conversations and activities?
4. Are you unbothered by the idea of people who are lost going into a hopeless eternity?
5. Are you content with not sharing the Gospel?