Series: Created and Called: God's Design for Life Together #6
Do you remember the thick fog back in February? I was driving home from the college on a Monday afternoon when I ran into that wall of fog. Just outside of Steinbach, you could tell it was hazy, but not bad. People were driving slowly, and I thought “Come on, it’s just a bit patchy. Let’s go.” But outside of Mitchell the fog grew thick. I couldn’t see the usual landmarks. At one point, I didn’t know where I was. Had I reached the Kleefeld turnoff yet? How slow were the cars in front of me? And to top it off, the highway got a little slick.
What makes fog a little frightening is not just the fact that you cannot see. It is that you can no longer trust your sense of direction.
Spiritually and morally, people today are living in a fog. Moral absolutes are not so absolute anymore. The truth we all believed is questioned. What is truth? What does it mean to be human? What is gender? Who am I?
Our world exists in a fog of confusion. And into that confusion, God has sent his church to provide direction.
We know the way. We know what is right because we have God’s Word. We know God’s design for humanity, for men and women, and for the body. We know why we are here. We know the truth. What we sometimes lack is the grace that carries the truth.
Being right can come off as arrogant. We can easily be mad at the fog and condemn its confusion. It is very tempting to become frustrated with those who are stumbling around in the fog and the blind leading the blind. But God has not called us to scream at the fog. God has not called us to avoid those lost in the fog. He has called us to bear witness to Jesus Christ who came to us full of grace and truth.
In a short little passage in the letter to the Colossians (4:2-6), Paul advocates for an approach we should have towards people living in the fog. It calls for prayer. It calls for wisdom. And it shapes how we speak.
1. Praying for an Opportunity to be a Witness (4:2-4)
Paul is in prison when he writes this letter to the Colossian church. He has been in prison a few times. Under house arrest. Chained to guards. Paul was often “hard pressed” and in difficult situations.
He is writing to a church that has its difficulties too. They have had to contend with strange beliefs about angels in their church. The church existed amid rampant immorality and pressures to conform to the status quo of their society. They were cornered and boxed in by social pressures.
Do you know what Paul tells them to do? Pray! But not for deliverance from this moral decay. Paul tells them to pray for an opportunity. He says, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving,” (2).
There are three parts to this prayer: persistence – watching the world around you – thankfulness to God that he is working in all realms. Paul’s telling the church, “You live in a spiritually dangerous culture that regularly shipwrecks souls.” There are philosophies and fads and logic that will sway you to think differently, even to interpret the Bible another way. Paul told the Ephesians to grow in maturity and discern these ideas through the lens of Jesus, “…so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes…” (Eph. 4:14).
Then Paul asks that they pray for him: “At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison – that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak,” (3-4). Pray for “open doors.” Paul saw his imprisonment as an opportunity. Paul saw his chains as a link to the man standing over him. How can I clearly share Jesus with this man from a different race, culture, and philosophy? How can I get him to understand why I am here chained to him? Isn’t that an amazing way to look at it?
We can grieve the provincial school board agenda and its curriculum. Our hearts sink when we think that our province was the scene of a multimillion-dollar drug bust. The immorality and low social consciousness of our neighbors should make us weep. Or we can see these crises as an opportunity to share Jesus with others.
Amid these social challenges to our Christian faith, pray for an opportunity to share the gospel. Praying this prayer will do two things: One is that we join God in his work of redemption for our world by asking his will to be done. Two, as we pray, we become more aware of the open door the Spirit is making for us to bring Jesus into the conversation. God loves to be asked for these things.
If we want to make a difference in our world, prayer is essential. It is not wasted time. It is asking God to go before us and make a way to share his vision for life and help Jesus transform people.
2. Walking the Example of Truth and Grace (5)
One of the greatest areas of confusion today involves identity, gender, sexuality, and the rights of the body. We are being pressured to conform to the way the majority thinks and to abandon our biblical convictions regarding these issues. Doesn’t that make you mad? Doesn’t that make you want to fight? Don’t you want to raise your voice?
Social media has shaped us to respond to opposing views with blunt rebukes. We tap out a few words and hit “send.” That’ll show ‘em. What I fear is that this online outrage is seeping into our face-to-face interactions. Our filters are broken and we say things we should regret. But don’t. Is this the manner that represents the gospel position?
I think Paul’s response would be the same to us as it was to Colossae, “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time,” (5). “Walk” is a favorite expression of Paul’s in speaking about how we live what we believe. It is the challenge to “walk the talk.” And in this way, we are to be wise in how we interact with people who don’t share our faith. What does that mean for us?
A wise person to me is someone who is careful and not too quick to speak. As James said, “…be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger…” (1:19b). Such an attitude speaks to how we behave and how we act with those who are outside the church (and even those inside). Paul calls us to walk wisely toward outsiders. That means we cannot respond with mockery, arrogance, or hostility. Social media has trained us to score points instead of loving people. But ridicule rarely opens hearts to the gospel. If our tone communicates contempt, people stop hearing what we are saying about Jesus.
I have found that people are disarmed when I ask questions about their views and beliefs. I don’t have to agree or affirm their beliefs to affirm them as a person worth getting to know. To show interest in them builds a bridge for further conversation. Few people have ever been argued into believing in Jesus. And it will not be our words as much as the way we live that will attract people to our faith. We have to show them God’s love by loving them.
John tells us that Jesus came into the world full of grace and truth (1:17). Grace seems to precede truth, but the two are nevertheless connected and cannot be separated.
3. Speaking the Truth without being a Jerk (6)
Paul’s final instructions to the church were not random. The tone of these five verses focuses on the outsider as we pray for opportunities to share Jesus, show them our faith, and now, how we speak to them.
Paul says, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person,” (6). Our conversations should be salty. We know that salt enhances the flavor of popcorn and makes us want more. “Salty speech” in Paul’s day referred to witty and clever conversation. The opposite of droning and lecture. How do we pique the interest of our hearer? How do we make our conversation salty so that they thirst for more? We want to talk about Jesus in a way that makes someone’s mouth water.
However, to many in our postmodern world, our beliefs translate to “bigotry” and “hatred.” Moral standards mean “judgmental intolerance.” Everyone agrees that bigotry and intolerance are wrong. But we have lost our shared perception of what qualifies as bigotry or intolerance. How do we share our truth without being a jerk in their eyes?
Take the example of Jesus. After a long journey, Jesus meets a woman at a well in Samaria (John 4). He neither avoids the truth with her nor does he weaponize it and bash her over the head. He takes this morally confused and socially marginalized person and leads her with grace and clarity to discover truth. Jesus speaks the truth in love (Eph. 4:15).
How does he do this?
Jesus does not avoid this woman (4-7). They are on opposite “sides” politically and morally. But Jesus doesn’t cross over to the other side of the street. He engages her. He doesn’t condemn her. We cannot be afraid of talking to people who have different lifestyles or values.
Jesus begins with a request for help (7-9). “Give me a drink,” he says. This is bigger than we realize. He is asking an “unclean” woman to serve him. It gives her dignity to be able to help someone. It treats her as someone with value.
Jesus encourages conversation (10-15). He speaks to her as someone whose opinion matters. He doesn’t lecture her; he allows her to spar with him over values. She is not a project for him, but someone to know and relate to.
Jesus awakens spiritual thirst (10). He speaks about “living water” and uses this imagery to appeal to her deeper needs. He offers to lead her to a more satisfying truth to live by than the one sold to her by society and lifestyle. Jesus doesn’t just expose what’s wrong with her thinking (he does correct her), but he reveals also what she has been searching for.
Jesus speaks the truth clearly (16-18). I appreciate the courage with which he confronts her situation. “Go, call your husband…” he says. He doesn’t accuse her of adultery or promiscuity. But he doesn’t shame her either. As much as culture tries to be accepting and tolerant, there is an innate sense of “wrong” even when they try to be neutral. We don’t need to point it out – they know.
Jesus redirects her toward true worship (20-24). She attempts a diversion by talking about places of worship, as if to change the subject of her sexual confusion. But what’s the real need? It’s about worship. And Jesus redirects her toward what really matters: Who do you worship? What gives you life and satisfaction? People are craving living water. They long to have their thirst quenched – a thirst for identity, a yearning for belonging and for intimacy, a desire for meaning and for peace. Often people are looking for the right things in the wrong places and coming up dry. Beneath so much confusion is often loneliness, disappointment, shame, and thirst.
Then Jesus reveals himself to her as Savior (25-26). When trust and relationship have been established, Jesus shares the good news with her. If we treat people as projects, we devalue them and they can see through us. Building true relationship with people builds genuine currency to go deeper with them.
Jesus knew everything about her…and he stayed. He moved towards her with truth and grace. That’s our model.
Our world exists in a fog of confusion. Our church may not clear every fog bank that moves in or resolve cultural confusion in our midst. But we can shine faithfully.
We are a lighthouse. A lighthouse does not chase every ship through the storm. It does not scream at the waves. It does not slip into the chaos of the tumult. It simply stands where it has been placed, anchored to the rock, shining faithfully through the darkness.
That’s the church’s calling in a confused world. We simply keep shining the grace and truth of Jesus.
AMEN
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