At the moment a well known Australian Christian is voluble in what they are saying. Now I don’t want to go into who this person is and disparage them, but I do want us to think about the issues we become involved in.
This person has been so voluble about so many issues and some of them pretty trivial over the years, that he has lost all credibility. To most people it’s a case of, ‘he’s raving on again.’ If all we are doing is turning people off, so they don’t listen at all, how is this helpful to God’s cause? It’s not.
How much better if instead of having a view on everything and expressing it volubly, to pick the issues that are worth standing up for? Otherwise we will just become known as a crackpot and a whiner and people won’t listen or take any notice when we do have something worthwhile to say.
Does that sound like too simplistic a view? Isn’t it what Jesus did? He tackled the big issues head on and never backed away from challenging the Pharisees about their hypocrisy and lack of compassion. Take a look at Matthew, 15:1-9, Matthew 23:1-39, Luke 6:41-42, Luke 13;15-17 just to mention a few.
But when he knew it was just something designed to trap him he didn’t get into long debates with them, Matthew 22:18. He knew when words would make no difference. The same when he stood before Pilate at his trial and the charges brought against him, Matthew 27:14. He knew the people wouldn’t listen. They just wanted to stir up trouble and get a conviction, one way or another.
Sometimes people if people know we are Christians they will try and bait us with questions and hypothetical situations that are really red herrings, designed to make us look ridiculous.
It’s the same situation as in a marriage. You need to pick your arguments carefully and decide what is important. So next time you’re tempted to weigh into a debate or getting on your high horse think about whether it will advance god’s kingdom perhaps cause people to think about God or will it just end up making you look ridiculous and not achieve anything worthwhile eternally.
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