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Live at Peace With Everyone (Romans 12:18)
I happened to be preaching in Cardiff the night
of Monday 12 June when Jerry Springer the Opera opened in the Wales
Millennium Centre. On arriving to an uncharacteristically quiet church
I was greeted by some that had not managed to travel to the city centre
to join the protests and assured that I would have a congregation soon.
And soon, indeed, many people arrived with tales of daring-do fresh from
the 'front-line' of protest and agitation. The truth is that over 1,000
Christians peacefully stood around holding placards declaring 'Jesus is
Lord', 'Worthy is the Lamb who was Slain', 'God is Love' and singing hymns.
Pictures of the peaceful protest can be seen on the Christian
Institute web site.
I have to give a wry smile at the application of the word 'protest' in
such circumstances. Like a lot of words these days it appears to be being
redefined to fit the Zeitgeist, denoting not a group of concerned
people using their democratic right to be heard and considered but rather
a bunch of agitators and troublemakers. I know some of the people who
'protested' and troublemaker is not the first word that springs to mind
when I think of them. Compare this peaceful protest with the protests
of Islamic groups in London not so long ago, in which placards declaring
threats of death and vengeance to the Infidel were brandished, and you
immediately see a contrast that liberal commentators are determined not
to see.
Another word that has gone this way is 'fundamentalist'. A word that denotes
someone who faithfully adheres to the fundamentals of a faith or ideology,
it may be applied as much to a convinced pacifist as it might to a rabid
terrorist. Today it means something quite different, routinely applied
as it is to the latter, meaning someone who violently adheres to
the fundamentals of a faith or ideology.
Language does this from time to time of course and many words have changed
their meaning in the face of popular usage, or over-usage. 'Born again'
no longer carries its original meaning outside those groups who still
use it, i.e. someone born of God through faith in Jesus Christ, surely
a description of every Christian. These days 'Born Again Christians' are
routinely seen as a sub-group within the larger Christian community alongside
more 'conservative' Christians. 'Evangelical' seems to have lost its meaning
for many, i.e. someone who believes in the evangel, the message of the
true gospel, and in the call to share it. So many disparate groups and
individuals style themselves 'evangelical' now that it is no longer possible
to understand the word simply by looking at the people who apply it to
themselves. This being the case we would be wise to be prepared to find
new words that describe ourselves as well as our beliefs.
As Christians we may find this situation irritating but being determined
to live at peace with everyone, we can be pretty good at finding new ways
to explain our message. After all, if we are true 'Evangelicals', that
is just what we are called to do and we find ever new and inventive ways
of doing it.
However, the secular world doesn't simply misunderstand, misuse and misapply
words in a way that challenges us to find new ways of defining ourselves,
it also misuses words such that they caricature and defame us and, more
importantly, the God whom we serve. When 'fundamentalist' is applied to
us in a way that characterises us as a bunch of irrational, Bible-bashing
zealots and a danger to the peace and safety of society; when 'Born Again'
is used such that it makes us look like a bunch of arm-waving, screen-touching
mugs for Jesus; when 'protestors' is applied to us such that we are made
out to be a party of party-poopers and 'puritanical' (another much-misunderstood
word) killjoys, it is then that we must look at the rest of our verse,
which says:
"If it is possible, as far as it depends on
you, live at peace with everyone"
You see, the exhortation to live at peace with everyone is balanced by
the mandate to:
"Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey
everything I have commanded you" (Matt.28:19,20)
The two do not always work in harmony, which is why we are to live at
peace "if it is possible, as far as it depends on [us]". Do we have a
mandate, then, to make war? In a way we do, insofar as we struggle,
'Not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces
of evil in the heavenly realms' (Eph.6:12)
We do not take up arms against our neighbours because such action would
be contrary to the Lord's command to love our neighbour as ourselves.
We do, however, take up the challenge to enlighten and inform our neighbours,
telling the glad tidings that Christ Jesus died for sinners and that caricaturing
him, ignoring him and otherwise dismissing him is not an adequate or a
wise response. Indeed such protests as we saw in Cardiff (the latest in
a long line), are not primarily designed to express the response of Christians'
sensibilities at the slight and slander of the world. Jesus declared,
'In the world you will have trouble' and
mature Christians are never surprised, much less amazed at the trouble
the world brings our way. Rather, Christians protest and proclaim the
truth for the benefit of the unsaved that, blinded and confused by a fallen
world-order, stumble towards a well-deserved and terrible fate for the
rebellion they have shown against the God who made them. A God who, even
now, reaches out his arm to save all who would turn to him in repentance
and faith.
Whatever the world calls us, however it caricatures us, the message is
the same as it always was:
"You see, at just the right time, when
we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly…God demonstrated
his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for
us" (Ro.5:6-8)
The philosopher Sissela Bok wrote:
"To be given false information about important
choices in [our lives] is to be rendered powerless. [Our] very autonomy
may be at stake."
As Christians we must stand for the truth and counter the false information
the world offers with the truth, both of the gospel and of the words we
use to share the gospel. Not for our sakes that are wonderfully saved
but for theirs who face the most important decision in a growing cloud
of obfuscation and doubt.