How do we live so that God is NOT ashamed to be called our God? We must live by faith.

There are many tensions that Christians must embrace: loving the world and hating it; citizens of heaven, here as exiles on earth; not conformed to the world but as ambassadors of Christ. About this, G.K. Chesterton writes,

“Then followed an experience impossible to describe. It was as if I had been blundering about since my birth with two huge and unmanageable machines, of different shapes and without apparent connection—the world and the Christian tradition. I had found this hole in the world: the fact that one must somehow find a way of loving the world without trusting it; somehow one must love the world without being worldly. I found this projecting feature of Christian theology, like a sort of hard spike, the dogmatic insistence that God was personal, and had made a world separate from Himself.” (How a Christian Patriot Might Love His Wayward Country – Denny Burk)

Throughout history, Christians have always wrestled with their “dual-citizenship” between earth and a heavenly kingdom. The concept is one that could be discussed ad infinitum, but the practical outworkings for our daily lives are where the “rubber meets the road.”

How should I respond to the LGBTQ+ overthrow in my work environment? Should I announce my pronouns at school like everyone else? How do I share the gospel in a hostile workspace where “religious talk is not allowed”? How do I represent Christ to my kid’s sports team? What do I say to my friend who wants to change their gender? What name or pronoun should I use for them?

All these questions and more arise when we think about these tensions. Every Christian’s situation is different, but God has placed us here for a purpose. In considering your situation, think about some of the examples we have in Scripture of people who lived within these dichotomies: Abraham, Joseph, Esther, Daniel, Jesus, Paul, Peter, and Timothy. How did these saints live to engage the world with the Truth?

We are confronted by many of the same questions today. Carl Trueman writes,

“The era when Christians could disagree with the broader convictions of the secular world and yet still find themselves respected as decent members of society at large is coming to an end, if indeed it has not ended already. The truth is that the last vestiges of a social imaginary shaped by Christianity are rapidly vanishing, and many of us are even now living as strangers in a strange new world… The church protests the wider culture by offering a true vision of what it means to be a human being made in the image of God.” (Living in This Strange New World - Public Square Magazine)

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope (Heb 10:23), protest the wider culture by living faithfully (1 Peter 2), pray for wisdom (Jam 1), and live our lives unashamed of the gospel (Rom 1:16).

Devotional: Read 1 Peter 2

Pastor Caleb