Our Ways Are Different

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

1 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (2 Co 3:17–4:2). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

This week should bring into particular focus our behavior in relation to each other and the world. Christ died an innocent man, laying down his life for others. I saw a pastor the other day note all sorts of people are willing to kill for Christ, but few are willing to die for him.

I think about this in relation to our fight in politics. Christians are not supposed to operate in an underhanded way. We’re not supposed to selectively edit God’s word and take him out of context to advance our aims.

On radio, sometimes my audience gets mad because I play longer audio clips instead of snippets. I want to put the words, even of those I oppose, in proper context. I don’t want to play gotcha. We can see things differently. We can interpret events differently based on our worldview. But we are not supposed to be deceitful, conniving, and cunning. I do my best to, as fairly as I can, explain what my political opponents see as truthful. The better I and my listeners understand accurately their point of view, the better we can respond.

Much too often these days, Christians in politics behave no differently from everyone else. We have removed ourselves from the sovereignty of God and think we must act or else all fails. But that shackles us and binds us to the world. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. We can be truthful. We don’t need to twist words, take people out of context, and play the games others do.

It is bad for our soul and it is bad for our witness. We’re supposed to draw the world to Christ. Reflecting the world does not do that. We offer a gospel of self, not of Christ.

In the real world, my friends in the Southern Baptist Convention are at it again. As they go to pick a new president, they are playing the ruthless game of American politics within the church. There is opposition research, out-of-context tweets, willful efforts to not understand people speaking plainly, and character assassinations of those involved masquerading as journalism.

These Baptists think they will pick their next president without the Holy Spirit. It is dreadful to watch the world creep into the church.

Christian, we can’t be like the world or we won’t reflect Christ. It is hard. The temptation to tribalism pulls at all of us. But we are not a tribe. We are the church of Jesus Christ and we must put our trust in Him, not our own efforts.

Above all else, we must show each other grace. We must allow each other to speak into the world and culture in Spirit and truth without condemnation for doing a gospel-centered task in a way we might not.

Christianity requires us to not mount a heckler’s veto over others in the church and resist sending the tribal mob off to enforce matters where in Christian liberty we must allow each other to act. Not everything you dislike is disliked by God and not everything you find fault in will God find fault in.

Our ways are not the world’s ways. I am convinced social media in general and Twitter specifically is harming our ability to show each other grace and understand the necessity of liberty in actions of Christian conscience that do not directly touch the orthodoxy of the church. We need the ways of Mary and of Martha and the differing views and passions of the various apostles. We need Jesus above all else. “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”