BLOGGING TOWARD SUNDAY…

What a tremendous temptation there is for every pastor to fall into the popularity trap!   All of us want to be popular, all of us want our people to love us, all of us want to avoid strife, arguments, and confrontations.  And far too many of us try to keep things running smoothly by preaching what people want to hear, rather than the clear word of the gospel.  But the call given us by God is not to be popular, but to be faithful.

For example, I expect I could be more popular if in my Bible teaching I only taught concerning things on which there is no disagreement… If I  taught only things that you already know…  If I didn’t chal­lenge people to new and deeper, more meaningful interpretations of the Scriptures that have been made possible through new translations and understandings.  I could be more popular, but I couldn’t be faithful.

My dear people, neither I nor you have been called to be popular in this life.  We have been called to be faithful, faithful to the gospel, faithful to Christ, faithful to what is true and good and right, faithful to each other.  That is a calling which supersedes everything else, a calling that takes second place to nothing.  It is a calling that will sometimes mean being misun­derstood and mistreated.  It is a calling that guarantees a measure of suffering, for as servants of Christ we cannot expect to fare any better than our Master.

Filed under: Blogging Toward Sunday