day no. 16,534: engaging, not assuaging

The church should be engaging culture, not assuaging it. That is to say, it should be dictating to the world the commands of its King instead of listening to the world’s demands. The church needs to learn what others already know: you never negotiate with terrorists. 

Matthew 28:18-20

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

The church does not need to be more responsive to the world; it needs to take more initiative toward it. We are the teachers, not the students. We shouldn't be taking notes from the world on how to win their respect. We should be delivering summons to the world demanding that they stand down and pay their respects to Christ before it's too late.

James 4:4

Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

enmity

The world hates us and we should fight back by loving it. We do not love the world by loving what it loves. A father who withholds discipline hates his child and a church that withholds correction hates the world. If the church is to love the world, it must begin by instructing it, not earning degrees from it. The approval of God in Christ should be taught instead of the approval of the world being sought.