Who Cares What Outsiders Think?

[Josh]

A natural reaction to the research behind "unChristian" is "why should we care what outsiders think anyway? Shouldn't we just be concerned what God thinks?"

The author address such questions and concerns throughout their book, but a couple of thoughts from me.

Of course we should care what God thinks first and foremost. But God does care what "outsiders" think.

There is a Scriptural principle throughout the New Testament that God can be recognized by the world through us.

Matthew 5:13-16

13"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

1 Peter 2:12

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

In Titus 2:10-11, Paul makes the case that through our actions we should "in every way... make the teaching about God our Savior attractive*. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men."

This was a concern of Jesus, Peter, and Paul- not that we would compromise with the world to gain admirers, but that in reflecting Jesus to our culture, we would appeal to the eternity in their hearts/ the image of God within them, which the Father will use to woo them back to Himself.

The onus is on us to live like Christ, because if we don't, often it is the rest of the world, ironically, who will point it out first. And I think in this research we can see on several fronts that we have work to do- a work which will never be done but which always needs renewed attention.

What do you think?


*or, as other translations say, "adorn" the gospel.

[carebear]

Yes I think we must first know and experience the love of God for ourselves personally and once we know and experience that, we will just know that this love is for everyone. The love we receive from God is like the best thing ever and we will know in our spirit how loving He is. If we walk in this mindset, we will know that yes, we are not to engage in sinful behavior with the world, but we are to walk in the world in order to conquer the darkness with His love and power.....for God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him (John 3:17).

So we do need to "care what the outsiders think" in the sense that we must show love and the fear of the Lord and live in purity. This doesn't mean we never call out sin when we see it. But His kindness leads to repentance.

We don't necessarily need to care what they think if they disagree with the gospel, but we do need to be aware of our walk, what we are displaying to the world, etc.

[carebear]

And His Spirit is soo full of love and grace and beauty and power and gentleness that when we walk with Him, spent time communing with Him, and read His Word, we will hear His voice, and know His heart for the world. The outsider will be drawn to Him. We should care if outsiders see Him walking with us and through us or not.

[michelle]

Yes, we should care what outsiders think...in some ways. We should absolutely care what outsiders think when it comes to how we live out the Gospels and the love of Jesus. We should care if they view us as unapproachable or hypocritical. If that is all that people can see about us, how can people be open to receiving the Gospel. If we don't live it, how can we tell others to?

Should we care if they think we are "behind the times" or "goodie 2 shoes" (I'm thinking of things like people choosing to not drink alcohol, watch rated R movies, etc.)? No and yes. We must stick with our convictions if God tells us that these things are possible stumbling blocks. People may seeing having to give these things up as a reason for tuning out the Gospel. We have to find some way around that. Someway to explain why we think it might not be good for us individually, but that we certainly do not believe that it is a blanket "rule" for all believers.

I don't think we should let what non-believers think about us cause us to not hold tight to our beliefs and our actions (if they are in line with the NT), but we should be able to discuss those choices with people.

[Josh]

People may seeing having to give these things up as a reason for tuning out the Gospel. We have to find some way around that. Someway to explain why we think it might not be good for us individually, but that we certainly do not believe that it is a blanket "rule" for all believers.

I like this.

[Josh]

I posted this elsewhere, but I think it fits on this topic as well:

Christianity provides a firm basis for respecting people of other faiths. Jesus assumes that nonbelievers in the culture around them will gladly recognize much Christian behavior as "good" (Matthew 5:16, 1 Peter 2:12). That assumes some overlap between the Christian constellation of values and those of any particular culture and of any other religion. Why would this overlap exist? Christians believe that all human beings are made in the image of God, capable of goodness and wisdom. The Biblical doctrine of the universal image of God, therefor, leads Christians to expect nonbelievers will be better than any of their mistaken beliefs could make them. The Biblical doctrine of universal sinfulness also leads Christians to expect believers will be worse in practice than their orthodox beliefs should make them. So there will be plenty of ground for respectful cooperation."

-Timothy Keller

Do we expect that the world will recognize some good in us as we follow Christ?