Here is a trivia question I'm sure many of you can answer right off.
When a motorcycle accident involves a car, what is the most common thing the person in the car says?
"I didn't see the motorcycle!"
Why is that? Why is it that those of us who ride can see another bike across two lanes of oncoming traffic, often identifying the kind of bike it is and waving when it passes?
Yet a person who doesn't ride can't see a motorcycle clearly in front of them as they make that often fatal left turn cutting them off?
It's all in what we are looking for. Those of us who ride, look at bikes all the time, are conscious of motorcycles and we see them. Others can be looking at the same thing, from the same vantage point and be completely blind.
Jesus clearly stated.
"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.Remember what I told you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.'If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also." John 15:18-20 (NIV)
The world will not see our arguments. The world will not see our point of view. Like that person driving the car, they are not seeing what is crystal clear to us. They will never obey our teaching because they do not know Jesus.
The world acts the way that it does because it is blind and does not follow Christ. No matter how much we shout, yell and protest on social media we cannot make them see His teaching and agree with it. It will never make sense to them and be accepted. Because Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship with Jesus Christ. When we preach morality, we preach religion. When we preach Jesus Christ we invite people to a relationship.
Far more important than changing laws is changing hearts. Jesus, Paul, Peter, and the rest of the early church were not trying to change the laws of the land, but preach the Gospel.
Where will the church place its efforts today? Last time I checked, the great commission has not changed. Discipleship comes before teaching. Attempting this process in reverse does not work.
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:18(NIV)
I wonder, if the church put half the effort it does in other agendas into obeying this commission, how different would things look today?
