How Should Christians Engage A Sinful World?

How are Christians to engage people and things around them they may not agree with because of their biblical convictions?

Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009 Posted: 3:43:45PM HKT

And they do not threaten non-Christians into submission; they do not even show their disapproval for unbelief or even, in today’s context, a certain form of immorality. Jesus Christ Himself respected the personhood of the adulteress in John 8 enough not to condemn her, and so should His disciples.

To do so is not to give their approval to sin. They have firm convictions of what is true and right and good, but in attempting to spread the love of God in the world they do not contradict their message by being judgmental or critical.

They simply withhold any form of judgment, even in cases where it is fully justified, like the Lord did in the account earlier alluded to.

The only concern in their relations with non-Christians is this: to see what are the actual needs that the latter would be willing to have them serve.

They are well aware that any attempt, no matter how well-intended, to threaten others into faith is bound to fail.

The only way to awaken love for God and others is to embody the love of God, and this takes the form of respectful compassion.

Who knows? Someday the non-Christians concerned might realise their thirst for God and His things.

Thus, while God is not willing that any should perish, at the same time He is patient with the world. In the final analysis, regardless of how much God would love to provide for all the needs of mankind, nobody is a mere digit to Him; they are all real persons with a real personhood and dignity.

This means that Christians should make themselves available to the world, being with them and befriending them. Then they should also be continuously sensitive to their needs while respecting their personhood in respecting their choice. In short, Christians should become the humble servants of the world.

Christians should be willing to accommodate the world as long as this does not involve worshipping or promoting other gods or immorality.

But if there comes a day when everything falls on the Christians, such that they are forced to deny their faith and worship other gods or commit immorality on pain of imprisonment or execution, then and only then, let them, like Christ, accept the fate of persecution or martyrdom.

Sometimes, there are problems within the Church itself, where part of the Church seems to be more like the world than the Church. The advice Jesus gave: if they refuse to listen after repeated exhortations, treat them as non-believers.

Taking into account all that has been said earlier, this means not to judge or condemn even those within the Church who err or stubbornly continue to err, but to be their humble servants, showing them respectful compassion.

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