A New Measure for Witnessing

It seems we’ve now come to the place in the West where the important thing about sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ is whether or not we offend anyone – portraying the Biblical Gospel is not the goal, leading a fellow man or woman to Christ is not the goal, compassionately and intelligently communicating God’s love and provision in Jesus Christ to others is not the goal – the goal is not to offend. If a person just happens to come into a relationship with Jesus, all well and good, but whatever we do let’s not offend. We need to keep Jesus respectable, we want to make sure He’s invited back, we want to make certain He won’t be expelled from the country club or civic association…or…even our local congregation. It’s ok to be radical about our football team, passionate about our politics, emphatic about our economic system, but let’s keep it cool when it comes to Jesus.

Is it any wonder people no longer know about Jesus? The church has convinced itself that Jesus belongs on Madison Avenue and not the Cross, it has convinced itself that Jesus constantly needs to be repackaged and upgraded like an Xbox or new generation of the Windows operating system – and if we get complaints about Him we issue a “patch” so the offence will be removed. We play fantasy Christianity the way we play fantasy football – not in public, not so that it matters to our coworkers, our neighbors, our family, our generation. We wrap ourselves in cloaks that make us invisible Christians when we venture out on Monday mornings; or are they chameleon cloaks…changing according to our surroundings so that we’ll blend in?

Salt that has lost its taste is good for nothing – Jesus said that…I wonder if He meant it? I wonder if He really really meant it? He couldn’t have meant it; after all, Jesus would never say anything to make anyone feel bad or upset or uncomfortable.

If it is 2:30 AM and my neighbor’s house is on fire and my neighbor is fast asleep, do I stand on his porch and knock and ring the doorbell for five minutes and go home if he doesn’t answer? If my neighbor perishes in the fire do I have a clear conscience, knowing I did all I could do?