The Greatest Testimony

Ephesians 4:30-32

Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:31-32)

THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION broke the Roman church’s monopoly on sanctioned truth in western Christendom. It also opened up a complex, chaotic argument about how to interpret Scripture. Sometimes the Reformers disagreed respectfully, but many times they turned caustic and cruel in their slander of others, even calling their opponents liars and tools of the devil. With the eternal destiny of souls at stake, they put all emotions and strategies into the ongoing argument. The acrimonious, savage environment that followed for more than a century turned many hearts and minds away from the idea of absolute truth altogether. If so many voices disagree, they reasoned, how can anyone really know who is right? The seeds of secularism were sown in a culture in which many thinkers decided they had had enough.

Many of us have the same tendency today—to argue for the truth of the gospel with attitudes that do not reflect it at all. The New Testament is emphatic in its promotion of peace, unity, kindness, encouragement, compassion, understanding, forgiveness, and love, yet some of its most ardent defenders continue to go after each other with rancor, bitterness, slander, and insults. All the while, the seeds of secularism continue to grow, largely for the same reason they did four and five centuries ago: The many voices water each other down and rip each other apart, convincing onlookers that if anyone happens to be right, no one could possibly know who it is.

Christians’ greatest testimony has never been our ability to win an argument but rather our ability to demonstrate love. When we focus on the former, we lose points in any cultural conflict that happens to be raging. When we focus on the latter, we become messengers of the better way, ministers of reconciliation, and agents of Kingdom growth. In all your efforts to bear fruit in this world, remember the true seeds of the Kingdom. Love with all your heart.

{Lord, forgive us all for falling short of your demonstration of love. You never ask us to compromise truth, but you emphatically command us to love those who do. May I never get so lost in my own words that I forget to do so. Amen.