“For if we consider the life of Christians in our churches…they have no style of life.”
-Jacques Ellul
Haunting lines from that prescient Christian thinker, Jacques Ellul. His book The Presence of the Kingdom has, for years now, haunted me, shaping how I see Christians and the world, our problems and why authentic Christianity seems to be vanishing. He saw it, I think, clearly: how Christian witness was dying and just whose fault it was. He saw that it wasn’t world’s fault but ours, the fault of those who called themselves Christians.
Because, of too many Christians, he said, it “is not their spiritual condition that effects their style of life,” but instead “they have exactly that which has been imposed upon them by their sociological conditions—by their class, their nation, their environment and so on.” The pressure to fit in, to assimilate, has erased Christian witness dramatically. Because we fear being different; so much so, we don’t want to suffer for our convictions, much less be found out.
Fearful, in fact, to such an extent that we hide our convictions so well we forget where we put them. Which means in turn that forgetting our convictions, we soon forget our faith; and then the faith is undone. And so, we find ourselves, as we do today, in the predicament of being surrounded by countless Christians who don’t know Christianity at all, much less Christ. Who then begin to wonder why they’re Christians; because their parents were is all they can think; maybe it’s all their parents could think too. And then they wonder why and what’s the point. And then they leave the faith, which they never actually knew. Which is how Christianity is dying in the West, by conformism and ignorance.
Hence still the urgency of Christ’s demand that we Christians be salt and light, that we be different in the world. It is simply the case that Christians must not fit in when fitting in counters the truth and love of Jesus expressed in his word. It is simply the case that Christians should stand out, embracing ridicule and suffering, because we follow a Lord who was crucified. Because he didn’t get along either.
And so, think how you should be salt and light, how you should be different. And then pray for courage. But, of course, before you can have this courage, you must know about Jesus; you must learn about him, and his teaching. Because this isn’t a courage that can be got by ignorance and sentiment, but only by faith. So, get to work on that faith, so you can be courageous. Because God wants you, and the world needs Christians. And not just in name.
