J.C. Philpot
You may take away almost anything from a man but his religion. To pronounce his faith a delusion, his hope a falsehood, and his love a lie; to sift his profession till nothing is left but presumption or hypocrisy; to withstand his false confidence, and declare it to be worse than the faith of devils; to analyze his religion, beginning, middle, and end, as thoroughly and unreservedly as a chemist analyses a case of suspected poisoning, and declare the whole rotten, root and branch - can this be done without giving deadly offence?
1 comments:
Well, yes, if the person whose religion is thus examined is honestly seeking truth and if his religion truly is rotten. Consider those who turned from idolatry to serve a living and true God (1 Thess. 1:9): Were they offended by Paul's preaching? On the contrary, they accepted it not as the word of men, but as the word of God (1 Thess. 2:13).
And maybe that's the key: If we are about the business of religion bashing and all we have to offer is another religion of human origin, people aren't going to appreciate our efforts. We will be perceived to be presumptuous and arrogant. But if we present truth not as from ourselves, but as from God, and if it truly can be shown to be from God (not just because we say so), then such ones as those described in 1 Thessalonians will appreciate our efforts.
And so my aim is never to offend for the sake of giving offense. My aim is to preach the word of God. And if I conduct myself as I ought, only the hearer's disposition will determine whether or not he takes offense.
Post a Comment