Something is Wrong With The Gospel We Preach and the Churches We Form

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By David Wong, 21, Singapore

Do you face a similar temptation? That is, to take difficult verses and invent a comfortable explanation so that we need not change the way we live? Or to make things easy for our listeners so that we can attract them to the gospel? Somehow I find it hard to warn people as Jesus did in Luke 9, telling them that Jesus was homeless, and following Him may very well entail that. It is easier to share verses like “Then Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest’ ” (Matt. 11:28 nlt). The demands of discipleship are not something we share readily when we evangelize.

Or consider with me Mark 10:21. Jesus says, “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” We like to take verses such as this, and come up with an explanation that will simply result in us doing nothing. “Jesus doesn’t actually ask us to sell all we have,” we tell ourselves. But the truth is: While the instruction is directed to the rich young man, Jesus is just as likely telling any of us to do the same too. Indeed, though Jesus may not call all of us to follow Him in that way, but “it is [just as] entirely possible that he will tell us to sell everything we have and give it to the poor.” 1 Hence, let us not be too quick to write this verse off, rather, let us be willing to seek God on this issue and honestly ask if God is calling us to do something radical.

On the note on possessions and money, let us delve a little deeper. God’s Word commands us to care for the poor: ““No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help” (Isa. 58:6-7). We are told in the New Testament from the mouth of Jesus that caring for the poor is a clear evidence of the faith, a mark that separates the sheep from the goats (Matt. 25:31-46). But how are we living these truths out? How are our churches emphasizing these things?

In his book, Radical: Taking Your Faith Back From the American Dream, David Platt indicts Christians in America (and definitely the rest of the developed world) for the way they live out the faith and the manner in which churches have reinforced a culture-conforming, statistic-pursuing, God-disregarding and self-driven mindset. With regards to possessions, Platt has this to say:

Imagine a man who claims to have Christ in his heart but indulges in sexual activity with multiple partners every week. When he is confronted by Scripture about his sin, he nevertheless continues in willful sexual immorality. He disobeys Christ persistently with no sign of remorse, contrition, or conviction. So is he really a Christian?

Of course, we are not this man’s ultimate judge. But… we would certainly question whether this man is really a child of God. It is not that he needs to stop sexual immorality to be saved. That would mean he would need to earn his salvation. No, he needs to trust in Christ, which will result in a changed heart with a desire to obey Christ in this area of his life.

So what is the difference between someone who willfully indulges in sexual pleasures while ignoring the Bible on moral purity and someone who willfully indulges in the selfish pursuit of more and more material possessions while ignoring the Bible on caring for the poor? The difference is that one involves a social taboo in the church and the other involves the social norm in the church.

We look back on slave-owning churchgoers of 150 years ago and ask, “How could they have treated their fellow human beings that way?” I wonder if followers of Christ 150 years from now will look back at Christians in America today and ask, “How could they live in such big houses? How could they drive such nice cars and wear such nice clothes? How could they live in affluence while thousands of children were dying because they didn’t have food and water? How could they go on with their lives as though the billions of poor didn’t even exist? 2

Something is wrong with our church when we spend millions of dollars on making sure we have a fine building, yet care nothing about the plight of millions who will die and go to hell. Something is wrong with our Christian theology when we interpret everything so that eventually we end up doing nothing. Jesus calls us to something radical (Luke 12:32-34); something unpopular (Heb. 13:13-14); something dangerous (John 15:20; 2 Tim. 3:12). Will we heed the call today?

Notes:
1. David Platt, Radical (Colorado Springs: Multnomah, 2010), p.13
2. Ibid., pp. 110-111