A Final Word About Authentic Christian Faith

Is your religious expression simply an external action or does it have internal, existential life-commitment undergirding it?

Final Word Two: Authentic Christian faith doesn't compromise to avoid persecution.

Contemporary culture always allows for some form of religious expression. In some environments, there is a lot of freedom. In others, it is quite restricted.

You would have thought that the Romans would have been religiously overbearing. They had the power to enforce whatever they wanted to enforce. At the same time, they had the wisdom to allow some degree of freedom to their captive constituencies, as long as those nations paid their taxes and did not carry out insurrection against the Romans.

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The Romans recognized the Jewish religion. They officially allowed the Jews to practice it. Circumcision was clearly an outward, visible mark that a person was a Jewish male. To enlist the new Christians into Jewish conversion, demanding circumcision of them, helped avoid persecution. Instead of being an incendiary new religion called Christianity, they could claim a sub-cult category under the already accepted umbrella of Judaism.

Paul was not prepared to accept this. He knew that the way of the Cross of Jesus Christ involved suffering. He already had experienced this. Later he would catalog for the first-century believers the extent of his own personal suffering and persecution, all coming about because of his genuine commitment to the crucified and risen Christ.

In 2 Corinthians 11:23-29, he catalogs these difficulties in the following words:

Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea. I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all churches.

I wonder what Paul's reaction would be if he saw us today, the American church. I wonder what would be his response to observing our efforts toward becoming "user-friendly" churches.

Faithfulness to the Gospel message of salvation only through faith in Jesus Christ and the faithful teaching and preaching of the Scriptures is not always that popular. Humorous, interesting, anecdotal, clever rhetoric is "user friendly" and can draw great crowds. However, when the popular preacher moves to another city or discredits himself through scandalous activities, people tend to flee to another place which we will call "The Church of What's Happening Now."