Gagging the Faith (Joshua 1:8)
”This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.”
Moses’ instruction to Joshua concerning his relationship to the Word of God is instructive for Christians today who seek to live faithful, obedient lives. Joshua was to maintain an equal, three-pronged commitment to the Word.
First, his speech not simply to be Bible-based, but Bible itself. I don’t think this means that Moses felt Joshua should spend his life simply quoting Scripture at every turn, but that he was to be a man whose speech continuously reflected the specific message of God’s Word, verbally proclaimed as the truth-source of every significant consideration in life.
Second, Joshua was to meditate on the Word of God—he was to make a habitual, personal discipline of mentally “chewing” on the Word, considering its application, meaning, and significance. He was to purposefully saturate his mind with the Word of God–a constant consideration and repetition of it that would naturally lead to memorization, I imagine.
Finally, the purpose behind Bible rooted speech and thought was so that Joshua would live a life that corresponded with the teachings of the Bible. These aspects of his relationship with God’s Word were like the legs of a three-legged stool—take away one of them and he would find failure, instead of a life that was prosperous, and marked by success.
Today, believers are constantly challenged to live their lives with one or more of the stool’s legs taken out from under them. We are tempted to think a lot of the Word, but not diligently obey it. We are applauded by our surrounding culture when we obey the Word—especially when our obedience directly benefits the culture through our services—but carefully scrutinized to insure that we are not guilty of speaking the Word, particularly in a way that confronts the culture with its desperate need for forgiveness and restoration to God through the blood of Jesus Christ. Christianity, a faith that prays for and promotes the proselytization of every human being on the earth to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, becomes unrecognizable as itself when it no longer actively seeks to proselytize. Our spiritual forefathers did not suffer for doing good deeds for the communities they lived in—they suffered for refusing to cease preaching that Name without which no one could hope to be saved (Acts 4:12). But today, it seems we are often tempted to volunteer to gag ourselves, so desperate are we to be thought of as reasonable, friendly, even “cool” Christians.
Should anyone reward or commend your “faith-based” actions, for the good of your community, while at the same time requesting or even requiring that you in any way curtail or postpone the clear, verbal, sharing of the message of the gospel, politely excuse yourself from the “conversation” because it’s not a conversation, really. The gagging of your faith is too high a price to pay for the momentary applause of the surrounding culture.
May 26, 2009 at 8:13 am
Ken,
This is a timely message. I feel completely gagged in the public arena and I have felt this way for years. Living and working in the corporate world has tempered my speech and attitude in a way that has often compromised the gospel. I have had to repent many times. But, the pressure to conform to a non-Christian and non-Biblical world view is powerful. You are quite right in noting that everyone wants the universal ethics of Jesus to be practiced: selflessness, love unconditionally, turn the other cheek, stand up for the poor, speak out againt oppression. But, that is as far as it goes. We are so pluralistic as a society we won’t be seen as “normal” if we stand for a “particular” faith system. If we live in the public arena as Joshua 1:8 demands we very often risk being accused of having a psychological dissorder, or being brain washed, or being cult victims, or being “mean”, because of our Faith’s exclusivity. It’s almost a full time job to just be faithful to the gospel while on the job. It at least requires a high degree of prayerful vigilance and dependence on the Holy Spirit for strength and faithfulness.
May 26, 2009 at 10:34 am
And you are not alone, brother! I’ve read an article, I think in CT a few months back, that identified a “straw man” often brought out in conversations about evangelism. The straw man is the Christian who is arrogant, rude, hypocritical, insensitive, loud and obnoxious, etc., who just wants to hammer out a gospel presentation, regardless of the feelings and responses of those who may sit still long enough to listen. He is the kind of person that would leave either no tip in a restaurant, or a pathetic tip–and a gospel tract! Although I’ve certainly found those types through the years, and have made my own blunders in those areas, I’ve found that the vast majority of Christians that I meet and know are normal folks who trust in Christ, have problems, love their families and friends, and would like to see others find the same forgiveness and hope in Christ that they themselves have found. I read a historian once describe our faith as one that grew “through conversations between neighbors over the backyard fence.” I really like that picture of evangelism. THAT’S the kind of witness our Enemy wants to silence, I think. The straw-man types do him a bit of good, so he probably encourages them along the way! Thanks so much for reading my article, brother! Good to have you in the same foxhole!