Do you like to be called foolish? Do you like to be called bigoted? Do you like to be called hateful?
Nobody wants to be labeled as foolish, bigoted, or hateful.
Its human nature to avoid being ridiculed. Most people will admit to wanting to be liked, if not revered.
In school we want to be popular. Many people will adjust who they are so that they can fit in to the popular crowd because for a teenager, whose world is small and misguided, it is often everything.
Unfortunately, adults are not always any more enlightened.
All too often adults, especially young adults, get drawn into what is effectively rebellious conformity.
A perfect example is the phenomenon known as hipsters. This is a trend where many adults have rebelled against the establishment en masse by wearing trendy clothing, only listening to music nobody else knows about, and covering their bodies with tattoos meant to individualize them along with the other millions of hipsters who have the same tattoos.
Even through our rebellion we conform.
People like to belong.
Is there anything wrong with belonging? Of course not, unless it forces you to compromise your Christianity.
Compromised Christianity is a very dangerous thing.
In Romans 12:2 Paul writes…
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
James 4:4 also states…
You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
Obviously, as Bible believing Christians, we should not conform to certain aspects of society.
We are not supposed to be completely separate from society, but we should differentiate ourselves from it.
That is exactly why I believe that the most important verse in the Bible for Christians is Matthew 5:11…
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
This is counterintuitive for most, maybe even all people. To say that you are blessed because people are insulting you, persecuting you, and saying all kinds of evil against you…just because you are a follower of Jesus Christ.
Not only do I think it is the most important I also think this is the most difficult verse to come to terms with, because it is so counterintuitive.
This is at the heart of becoming a Revival-lutionary for Christ.
Being a Revival-lutionary is about living a public Christian life despite how unpopular it might be, never backing down, and facing our persecutors head on. We do that because of the promise of verse 12.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
When you look at it that way a little persecution isn’t so bad, in fact, it's good. Not good to be persecuted, but good knowing that the promise Jesus made is coming to fruition.
Recently it has become popular in the media to call Chick-fil-a a hateful organization. Mayors of Boston and DC have said that the popular chicken selling franchise is not welcome in the cities because they sell “hate chicken.”
Many other Christians and Christian organizations have been stamped with the same nomenclature, only because they quoted the Bible.
To the non-believer, and in some cases believers, love can only be expressed through total acceptance.
Unfortunately love is sometimes confused for apathy.
I love my sons, as much as I love anything in this world. I would do anything for them. If one of them wanted to run into the street and I stopped him, would I not love him? He wants to do it, but I know it’s dangerous.
Loving him I tell him no. If I was to say it’s his choice, I’m not going to get involved. That would be apathy, which is what many Christians are doing today.
We Christians know the truth and it is our duty to spread the truth.
It’s called the great commission.
We are not supposed to spread apathy, we are supposed to spread love and love is sometimes difficult. Love says the hard things. Love doesn’t take the easy way out and love doesn’t back down, even when it is not popular.
It’s time for Christians to control our narrative. It’s time for us to repudiate the lies and confused message that is being forced by the media and non-believers who want nothing more than to discredit the true loving nature of Biblical truth.
It’s time for a Revival-lution!