One cannot be a serious Christian without being strong and courageous. There are two particular elements of growing in Christ that require courage and both are a result of being obedient to Jesus.
First, obeying Jesus in public life requires great strength and courage. Contemporary times are becoming less and less accommodating to Christian obedience. Western culture posits the dictum that faith is a private affair. You can have your faith to yourself, but don’t share it with others.
Jesus says otherwise. Jesus (and the New Testament authors) is adamant that we share our faith with others (Matt. 5:14). Refusing to do is an act of disobedience. This means that Christians cannot be free to fully practice their faith if ordered not to share their faith. Sharing faith enabled by freedom of religion. It is when culture tell us to do something other than what Jesus or the Bible tells us, that culture infringes in freedom of religion.
This means that serious Christians have to decide to either obey Jesus, or the cultural law of the land. Not accommodating culture (or being “counter-cultural”) inevitably results in turbulence. When people deviate from the cultural norms that create stability in daily life, things get uncomfortable; people’s proverbial feathers get ruffled. Obeying Jesus when obedience accommodates culture is one thing; obeying Jesus when the results will single you out and create tension in your cultural environment is another matter altogether. The latter requires strength and courage.
Our internal walk with Jesus requires strength too. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. Sin is not just things we do wrong (or good things we fail to do); thoughts and attitudes can also be sinful. Sinful thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors grow out of deep, personal pain and disfunction. Adjusting these behaviors to conform to the life that Christ died to give us is painful. It means confronting our problems. Christians are not permitted to ignore their problems. Christians are called to face problems head on for the sake of the sanctification process and the glorification of Jesus.
If the Holy Spirit is convicting you about that thing, then that thingmust be serious, even if it may seem inconsequential to you. The bottom-line is that it often takes more courage than I am able to muster to face my own weaknesses, pains, hurts, and sins (behavior, thoughts, and attitudes) head on.
Being a serious, obedient, Christian, requires strength. Consider this in light of the following commands from the Scriptures:
- Matthew 5:48
- Matthew 5:24
- Ephesians 4:31–32
- Matthew 12:36
- Luke 6:30
- Matthew 18:21–22
