Get Up In Their Grill!

First off let me say that I am very thankful that I am a teacher. I spent Friday and Saturday helping build a fence at my house. I spent Sunday trying to recover. Hence the reason there has been no posts since Wednesday.

Yesterday Patrick mentioned a book that he saw that was about us being intolerant of the things that go against our belief. I believe the title is Be Intolerant by Ryan Dobson(Son of James Dobson). Patrick sent me the Amazon link to this book at my request and I started looking at information about it. I also pulled up the author’s webpage and read for a few minutes. The Amazon link that describes the book says this:

“Love is getting in people’s faces and tell them the truth.”

So what I have been thinking about since yesterday and through today is where is the line between sharing the truth with someone about their actions and being a pushy arrogant self-righteous offender who pushes people away from Christianity.

Now I don’t know the full direction that Dobson takes in his book. The description does mention doing this “in love” which I agree is essential, but from there I don’t know anything else that he talks about. So everything that I am mentioning is only a thought that came from this brief statement and is not to say that the book teaches something different. I don’t know what the book says.

The reason this has been on my mind is that I have been saying for the last couple of months that we need to be counter-cultural. We need to live our lives in a way and speak words that go against what the culture of today teaches. These of course were brought to the forefront of my mind through the study of Your Jesus is too safe.

When is being offensive ok? Is it ok as long as I am doing it out of love? Does love offend at all? Should I only get in the face of another believer who is doing something against God’s word or should I also get in the face of a non-believer and tell him he is wrong for doing the things he is doing.

I know we should show fellow brother’s and sisters the truth and we should call people out in love to do the right thing. Paul did this to Peter in Galatians 2: 11-14. Priscilla and Aquila taught Apollos when they heard his teaching that did not include the full gospel of Jesus in Acts 18: 24-26. In John Ch. 6 when Jesus talked about being from heaven and being the bread of life, many of his followers were offended and turned away and left him.

I guess the question we have to ask now is “Is it ok to get in someone’s face who is a non-believer?” I agree that our beliefs need to be vocalized. I am not saying we shouldn’t tell people we think something is wrong. I guess I am just concerned about how we can go about that while still trying to get them to accept the truths about Christ. I can’t imagine too many people have become believers by a Christian getting in their face whether in love or not, and telling them they are wrong. I believe too many people have turned from Christ never to return because of a believer bible-bullying them. I think we don’t do enough of the first type of correction (which is towards another brother or sister) and we do too much of the correction towards non-believers. How can we expect them to live up to a standard that they don’t believe in?

I guess this is where I stand on the issue of showing the non-believing world the truths of the bible and what we believe is right and wrong. We need to live counter-cultural. Our lives need to be a reflection of the standard that we are called to. We then develop real relationships in the world, even with “tax collectors and sinners” and live out our faith. I think we can do this without accepting everything that the world says and does as ok. And once we show them Jesus we can pray that they will accept Christ as their savior and will start to change the type of person that they are.

We need to let Jesus change people and realize that we can’t do it.

This post I believe is truly a ramble. A bunch of questions and not many answers. I would like feedback. Even if you completely disagree with my thoughts on it I would like to hear your thoughts.