Fight The Good Fight?

Paul, writing to Timothy in 2 Tim. 4 mentions this fight -and in context he's clearly speaking of faith, not human power as such. Then again we must recognize Rome would -not- allow opposition without ultimately crushing all who were deemed opposing it's power. How this has historically played out toward the poor, widows, orphans, migrants is easily and regularly charted by historians all through the years.

Paul was seen as a trouble-maker and possibly an insurrectionist and as far as we know, was martyred for such though we can surely say if Caesar had him executed it was not so much for his faith as for the other issues I raise here. For Paul of course, it -was- about his faith in Jesus as Paul's focus was serving people via evangelism and discipleship ministry, not political positioning.

Leaders have often (Hitler for example) watered-down true Christian faith and spirituality by getting the church to compromise for the sake of the pol's power -and often sadly, out of fear and sometimes desire to -be- in power as a church. This is also clear from a thorough read of history, not merely a political position of mine -I'm an independent voter and have been most of my life.

I recently read a thoughtful slew of posts calling for preaching the Word of God and essentially setting aside public protests about injustices to people. While I fully agree we are called to speak and live out the Word of God in daily relationship with Him and care for our neighbors I also recognize very few get (prior to his beheading) John the Baptist's opportunities to get personal time with national and international leaders (not to mention today's Herod's). And we see what happened to John and Jesus as well where the deep sin in political and at times religious leaders out of jealousy and perceived opposition to their power is often extreme and brutal.

I think followers of Jesus must pray long and hard about when to speak, when to refrain from speaking but not to be full-on-silent and removed from "the streets". I'm convinced the Civil Rights Movement (cited in the posts I mentioned here) is an excellent study along with that of the Confessing Church movement in Nazi Germany to instruct true Christ-followers in such matters. Non-violence, peaceful protest and living a life that backs verbal proclamation of the Good News of Jesus, the ethics of God's Word and at times, John the Baptizer style warnings along with that of other Bible prophets is not only commanded by God but led by the Spirit in and through the life of believers whose first citizenship is "in heaven", not on earth.

I cannot believe that fighting for souls, their eternal salvation and spiritual growth as well as meeting their practical needs via our faith in Jesus Christ has zero to do with Jesus' Matthew 25 imperatives with regard to how we treat "the least of these" among us.

I indeed believe our fight "is not against flesh and blood" yet that we are called by the Lord throughout His Word to clearly align with the poor who get the worst brunt of political overreach and at times, domination- this is part of the calling of all genuine Christ followers.

This begs the question: in light of the deep and deepening needs of the poor, widows, orphans, outcasts in your society and mine, what are you and I actually doing to serve the people in need rather than merely serving "the powers that be" in order to serve ourselves?

As always, truly, thanks for stopping by. -Glenn