Finding Balance in Peace and Boldness

“Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him.”-1 John 3:18-19

It seems like there are a lot of people rising up to speak boldly about their faith lately. Well, at least their understanding of what their faith is. In fact, it seems like they have gotten to a point where they do not care if they cause people to get mad or upset because, “It’s all in the name of Jesus”, right?

You see, there is a point where we need to speak boldly for our faith, but then there is a balance in finding peace.

Christ said, “Blessed are the peacemakers”, yet there are so many “Christians” who speak in such a way that creates war.
The rhetoric and vitriol that is spread causes lines to be drawn and people to choose the opposite of Christ because His followers are causing so much strife.

Being bold in the faith is being willing to stand for Christ when the world says He is dead. Being bold in the faith means holding on to your Bible when the world says burn it. Being bold in your faith means walking into a world that declares “Live how you want”, but you choose to acknowledge the change Christ calls you to.

We can beat the world over the head with Christ’s standards, but Christ said, “The world hated Him first”. So, why would we expect the world to live by His standards? We need to focus on ourselves and allow God to do the work of transforming those who do not live by His words.

Being bold means living for Christ and not for yourself and when the world recognizes you live differently and ask why, your response will be, “I follow Christ!”

When we tell people how sinful and horrible they are in order to get them to know our Christ, who only told the religious people how horrible they were, all it does is create discord and pushes people further from the truth of Christ.

Peace is what we should strive for. When we serve people who are different than us, we are bold in our faith, but creating peace. When we love people who don’t love us back, we are standing up for Jesus, while bringing peace. When we choose to care about people regardless of how they live, where they live, or what they look like, then Jesus is being proclaimed and we reveal His message of peace.

We share the gospel through our words always, but is it necessary to tell people how sinful they are or do we lift them up in their brokenness and reveal to them the reason why we lift them up is due to the One who was lifted up on the cross for all of us.

Let’s face it, people know if their lifestyle isn’t healthy and they don’t need us telling them over and over again. However, they need us to walk into their lives, helping them understand why they are broken, but ultimately they can receive redemption and healing through Christ. Then, we are bold enough to say that is why we are walking with them in order for them to receive peace because we have received peace.

Boldness in faith does not mean yelling from the picket lines how God hates people. Boldness in faith means crossing the lines, walking with people who religious people won’t walk with, and walking in the words of Christ as peacemakers.

May we bring peace everywhere we go. May people see that Christ is real in our actions, but in our words as well. May our words be truth of the gospel, but may we also speak in such a way that people understand the peace Christ brings in our lives.

Peace and blessings friends.

QUESTION: How do you act in boldness, but reveal peace with those who are different than you?