Yesterday I made this statement:
The Corinthians attempted to blend the gospel with the thriving, competitive, and self-sufficient Corinthian culture. As a result they were in danger of losing the gospel. Rather than unleashing the power of the gospel they were neutering it. And we do the exact same thing when we try to be “somebodies” to show that Christianity is a “somebody” type of faith. A crucified king is “foolish” lets just admit that.
I thought it may be beneficial to give a few examples of how we do this in our day:
Whenever we try really hard to show unbelievers that Christians can be cool. The entire reason why we hang out with unbelievers, watch certain television programs, and listen to certain music is to prove to a watching world that Christians aren’t boring. We can be fun too. That’s all well and good until our “coolness” morphs into worldliness. You do not win people to the gospel by being worldly. You might convince them that you are cool, but I am not certain you will convince them that Christ is mighty to save.
I have heard stories of televangelists soaking up air conditioning in luxury hotels in the third world countries as a display of the power of God in blessing people. Whenever we think that we have to look glamorous to make Christ look beautiful we have missed the gospel entirely.
If we are convinced that what the world really needs is a cogent and fine-sounding argument for the validity of Christianity, the existence of God, the historicity of the resurrection, etc. then I think we are moving away from Paul’s primary means of apologetics. This is not to say that Christianity is based upon blind faith devoid of reason. This is to say that Christianity is founded upon claims that the unregenerate finds foolish. So while you are studying how to tackle the logic of Epicurus, pray that the Lord may tackle the depravity of heart.
What are your suggestions????
