A Call To The Remnant

The lives that we lead as Christians cannot be a contradiction to what we share or preach or teach. There must be a wonderful unity in what we say and how we live, there is real power in that. I think of 1 Cor 13 where Paul clearly tells us that we can know all mysteries and even give our bodies to be burned but if we don’t have love, what do we have? Love, the love of God, is central to who we are. We cannot separate this love from what we share. In order to walk with the power of the Holy Spirit we must be lovers of God and lovers of what He loves. This is no natural love, it is supernatural. Very few Christians will disagree with what I just wrote but I have discovered that many will use this kind of love as an excuse not to say anything at all. The line goes something like this ” I am just loving them into the Kingdom.” Yet the Gospel must be preached. We cannot just be witnesses with our lives, although it starts there, we must be about our Fathers business. Too often people are silent not because they want to win souls by the life’s that they lead, but because they are too afraid to speak up and then simply spiritualize their silence.

Jesus, we would all agree, loved with a perfect love. Yet every single word that came out of His mouth also came with a challenge. His word had to be acted upon. He loves the woman who was thrown down at His feet and did not condemn her, but He told her to go and sin no more. He loved the woman at the well but did not hesitate to speak of her many husbands. He was never afraid to speak the truth but He always spoke it with love. It is the combination of truth and love that breaks the chains of bondage. It is the combination of truth and love that sets the prisoner free. When we speak to the lost we must not be afraid to speak the truth that is applicable in their own lives. The truth spoken in love will challenge the heart of the hearer to its very foundations. They will be stabbed in the heart no doubt. They may accept what you say with gladness, humble themselves and seek out the giver of life or they may react with great anger and never want to speak to you again. Speak as the Holy Spirit leads you and do not remain silent when you hear His voice. Choose rather to offend men than to offend a Holy God. Your friendship with someone who is lost will not save them. You can and should walk in holiness but a holiness that does not challenge the lost is something that is self-indulgent. Jesus walked in Holiness and He spoke the truth in love, we must do the same otherwise our love is not the love of God but merely something worldly that does not carry the power of God. It is the love of God that changes men and women.