Complete Devotion and Faithful Witness
As Christians, we sometimes make the effort to appear “cool” to unbelievers. We act, speak, and engage in activities that are agreeable to them, desiring their approval and friendship. However, in one of the strongest rebukes of believers in the New Testament, the apostle James wrote, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4, NASB).
This does not mean that Christians should not be kind or build good relationships with unbelievers. Nor does it suggest that we should be careless about what those outside the church think of us. Indeed, the opposite is the case. Christians should make the effort to do good and have a good reputation with all people (Matthew 5:16; 1 Timothy 3:7). But when the expectations of unbelievers require us to downplay or compromise our Christian identity, values, or convictions, we must resist.
This reveals the delicate line we often need to walk as we strive to fulfill our two-fold responsibilities of complete devotion to God and faithful witness to the world. Doing this requires selflessness on our part, whereby we submit our personal interests to those of God. The key is in the words of our Lord: “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24). To deny ourselves and take up our cross (an instrument of death) means that, to be faithful disciples of Christ, we must be ready to suffer personal loss for his sake. In other words, our need to resist the spiritually harmful expectations of the world while maintaining healthy lines of communication with unbelievers, with the hope of witnessing to them, may require us to give up something.
It is only by the grace our Lord gives that we can fulfill this high standard of our Christian calling (see Hebrews 4:16). Moreover, any sacrifice we make in our effort to follow Christ in this way is an investment in the kingdom of God, and we can be confident that we will reap the eternal rewards. “For our momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Yet, we do not have to wait until the afterlife before we reap the fruits of our devotion to Christ. As Scripture further states, “godliness is beneficial for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come (1 Timothy 4:8). Even now does Christ begin to reward our faithfulness to him by giving us peace, contentment, and all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).
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