Rev. John Lancaster
WALK IN WISDOM TOWARDS OUTSIDERS
“There was a massive poster of me down my road, right outside the chip shop. I was about to go in, but then I saw it and changed my mind. Me coming out with a bag of chips, while I’m up there doing crunches on the poster… well, it wouldn’t look good,” said Jessica Ennis, who is one of the bright hopes for gold in the London Olympics this month.
Jessica was speaking about how the challenge of athletic success had demanded adjustments to her personal life. She had to watch how she lived, not only for personal reasons, but also for the image she presented to the watching world.
Exactly the same advice comes from the award-winning spiritual athlete, Paul: “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person” (Colossians 4:5-6),
In Ephesians 5:15, he urges us to ‘walk circumspectly’, which is a walk described by one old preacher as the way a cat gingerly negotiates the glass-embedded top of a wall.
In the same way, Peter writes, “In your hearts honour Jesus Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks you for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good name in Christ may be put to shame” (I Peter 3:15-16).
‘Would our Christian employee please step forward as I’m unable to identify you from your conduct”.
‘The man whose personal conduct in the world of work contradicts his profession of faith is a disaster’.
Even slaves, living at the lowest level of existence in Roman society, are reminded that they can ‘adorn the doctrine’ – make the message of the gospel attractive – by their personal attitude and conduct at work, a challenge which is extended to every Christian who awaits Christ’s coming again.
The necessity of lifestyle confirming the profession of faith came home painfully to me as a teenage Christian in the RAF. Virtually bullied by an older airman into participating in the unit’s weekly football pool – he called me mean-fisted, unsporting, goody-goody and a host of other things – reluctantly I gave in and gave him a sixpenny piece.
He let the coin rest in the palm of his hand, looked at me derisively and said, “Huh, I thought you were supposed to be a Christian!” Suddenly, that little silver coin looked to me like Judas’s blood money, and a sense of shame overwhelmed me. It was a small thing, but it taught me never to compromise, because the world actually does expect Christians to be different.
As the anti-Christian philosopher Nietzsche said, “You will have to look more redeemed if I am to believe in your Redeemer.”
It is significant that both Paul and Peter insist that Christians must give verbal testimony to their faith – it is not enough to just live a good life. There must be the sharing of the truth of the gospel – but both say witnessing without the corroboration of a godly life is not enough.
The man whose personal conduct in the world of work contradicts his profession of faith is a disaster; the woman whose attitude in her office raises questioning eyebrows is equally so, and the Christian who is as materialistic, selfish, intolerant, unreliable, and as worldly ambitious as his unsaved neighbours will confirm the world’s doubt about the truth of the gospel.
Going for gold in the Christian sense is not merely a matter of achieving success through brief sprints of hectic activity now and then. It means the steady rhythms of the marathon in which character is formed and Christ is exalted through the purity, integrity, and shining quality of a Spirit-anointed life.
Barnabas Ministries UK 