Pastor’s Corner: “Upside Down”
Isaiah 5:20 (NLT) – 20 What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.
In 1948, General Omar Bradley made a statement with a prophetic ring to it: “We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount… Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.”
What an accurate description of our times right now. Today, with all our technology, we have simply discovered new ways to kill one another and to eradicate what God has done. Despite our great technologies and great abilities, we have made no progress in solving our basic human problems. That is because the world is upside down.
While the early church turned their world upside down, it seems today that the world is turning the church upside down. The early church consisted of a relatively small group of Christians. Their numbers were not large like ours today. They did not have the technology like we have today to get the Word out. Yet they made a dramatic difference wherever they went.
Today, the church’s impact on the world seems to be null and void. And that is my point. Christians are allowing secular attitudes to find their way into the church and into their lives. It seems like our culture is affecting us more than we are affecting our culture. The world needs to see a genuine man or woman of God living the Christian life. They need to see the real thing, they need to see you. God can use you. Maybe you are not a preacher, but you can proclaim the gospel message through your life and through your words. You can turn your world upside down.
How can we do this? The apostle Paul can give us some insight. 1 Corinthians 2:2 (NIV) – 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Today’s conventional wisdom might suggest that such a strategy is not sophisticated enough, not appealing enough, and not subtle enough to succeed in a thoroughly pagan society, especially in the face of human knowledge, technology and advancement in our world today. But Paul’s life and legacy prove otherwise. In fact, before he first arrived in Corinth, the apostle and his cohorts had earned a reputation as “men who have upset [literally, “upended”] the world” (Acts 17:6). That statement proves that Paul’s (and his companions’) gospel preaching was effective. But it wasn’t meant as a compliment. That is what the Jewish leaders in Thessalonica said about Paul — just before they incited a riot.
The fact that the church grew quickly and reached to the outer edges of the Roman Empire (and beyond) certainly does not mean the apostles found a way to make their message popular. The gospel was no more popular in the first century than it is today. The majority of people rejected and opposed the message — often violently. What’s significant about all this is that in the face of such opposition, Paul made no effort whatsoever to adapt his methodology in a way that might pacify his critics or avoid the reproach.
I like this quote from Vance Havner: “We are not going to move this world by criticism of it nor conformity to it, but by the combustion within it of lives ignited by the Spirit of God.” We can criticize and complain from the side-lines about how “Upside Down” the world is today and have absolutely no impact or influence. We need to engage as ambassadors of Jesus Christ! Believers today need to be involved in upside down living. The early church turned their world upside down (or should I say right side up?). And in this crazy, topsy-turvy world where wrong is right and right is wrong, we need to do the same.
In His Grace,
Pastor Hamilton