(Mark 9:38-50) The life that Christ has called us to is not intended to be “heaven on Earth”, far from it indeed. John 16:33 (“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”) makes that very clear. Two things are certain, there is a high price for following Christ, but we can have comfort in knowing that Christ has overcome the world and all it throws at us. The passages in mark lay down Jesus’ desire for how we are to live, and at the same time preaching the truth as to what will happen to us if we don’t live that way.
Over this past month it has surprised me to realize how “nice” the Christian community has become. We don’t want to rock the boat or offend someone by what we say. During Jesus’ years of ministry He wasn’t one bit concerned with offending people, He was concerned with sharing the truth and doing so out of genuine love. I think we tend get things mixed up when think about sharing the gospel out of love. We get this idea that love is all nice and doesn’t cause waves. That’s false, the idea of “tough love” is more in tune to the kind of love that Christ showed during His ministry. I think we need to examine our own attitudes and hearts if we find outselves simply sharing the truth out of a desire to change people and make them stop doing things that are against God. The true sharing of the Gospel comes from the love we have for people and their eternity. We ought to want to show them the truth so that they have and eternity secured with God and so that they might experience all that God has to offer them.
I’d like to leave this post with these questions. What is your heart’s attitude concerning the sharing of the Gospel? Are you willing to truly pay/live the price of following Christ?
