By David ReayThursday 30 Jul 2015LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 0 minutes
Transcript:
Read 1 Peter 2:11-12
11 Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. 12 Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world. (NLT)
It may be disturbingly true that more people have been turned off Christianity by the church and other ‘Christians’ than by all the atheistic propaganda that comes our way. The church which is meant to be an instrument by which people come to know and love Jesus is the means by which they are turned away from him.
In response to this we may legitimately reply that when Christians speak and live as they ought, people do come to Jesus through them. We rightly lament the shortcomings of our churches, but just as rightly commend them when they do the work God has given them to do. We also note that because Christians are not yet perfect nor is the church.
We dare not be cynically dismissive of the people of God because they are imperfect. After all, the bride of Christ is not yet without blemish or wrinkle. We dare not complacently accept our shortcomings without due regard for the impact they have on a watching world.
The greatest threat to the ongoing vitality and integrity of the Christian faith may not be the assaults of a secular state of atheistic intellectuals. It may yet be a church which does not live out its God-given role in society.
Blessings
David Reay