MEN AND WOMEN OF COURAGE!

“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love” (1 Corinthians 16:13-14 NIV).

In closing his letter to the Corinthians, Paul made several personal requests of the church when he dropped this parenthetical statement into the flow. I love the Corinthian letters because I see in them, through the struggles and failings, a picture of the American/Canadian church of today.

Sadly, much of the Western church considers itself to “have arrived.” We are very satisfied with a rather mediocre level of Christianity; we tend to think of ourselves as so much more advanced and clearly more spiritual than most of the church world. Much of the rest of the church world looks at the Western church and wonders, “Why did they get off the train so early? There is so much farther to go, so much more to do.”

What I am about to say is not done with malice and I trust you will know that I love God’s people and I love the church. Could the economic demise we are in be only partly due to the foolish policies of our government and business leaders? Could a major reason be because of the failure of the church? Dare I say this—but have we come under the chastising hand of God because of our disobedience?

A few months ago a church not far from where I live announced a new building project that will cost 80 million dollars. Not more than three weeks later one of the large downtown Dallas churches announced they were starting a new building project and they would be spending 130 million dollars.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with having church buildings, nice church buildings, but I invite anyone to show me from Scripture where we are instructed to build buildings and call them the church.

Over half the world does not know who Jesus Christ is. Half the world will go to bed tonight hungry and with inadequate housing—and two churches in Dallas, Texas, will spend over 200 million dollars to build buildings that very soon will sit empty because the Lord has returned. And even if He doesn’t come soon, do we really need these edifices? Just who are we trying to impress?

Paul understood the future. By the eye of faith he knew what would be happening to the bride of Christ in the last days and he emphasized truths that he knew would be essential for all believers. Don’t mistake boldness for courage! A little boldness is fine but maturity is far more valuable to the believer. Over and over in Scripture we are instructed and encouraged to grow and mature.

Before Jesus left the disciples and returned to heaven, His clear command to His followers was, “Build big buildings, raise lots of money and stay current with societal trends. Make the gospel a message that is contemporary and faddish—and teach people to be the best they can be.” Jesus said nothing of the kind! His final instruction was, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mark 16:15 NIV).

Jesus did not tell us to build churches, seminaries, hospitals or schools. All of them are good ideas and we jump into them with glee while essentially leaving His final instruction undone.

Recently I saw a projection that burdened and startled me and may be the reason for this outburst. I read that at the current rate of missionary activity contrasted to the world population growth, world evangelism will soon be so far behind on the growth curve that it may be impossible for us to ever catch up.

It’s going to take courage to stand for Christ in these last days. Paul said the last days would be very difficult; that they would be fierce days in which to be alive (2 Timothy 3:1). Jesus said that in the last days, “The love of many would grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). The implication seems to be that the fire of the faith of some believers, in the last days, would be extinguished by the difficulties facing them.

The Western church is not, at this point, a courageous, mature church. We are a self-absorbed, lavish living, faith wasting, biblically illiterate, immature church, more concerned with how we look than in doing what God has clearly instructed us to.

It’s not wrong to want to be the best you can be but that cannot be our central focus. It takes courage to step out in faith when the prevailing wind is in your face and not at your back. It’s when we stop pampering our flesh and step out in faith that we show ourselves to be “men and women of courage.”

One final thing and then I’m done. Stop looking to the pulpit or the latest Christian best seller for courage. You be firm in your faith; strong, loving and courageous. That’s the Bible way!