“Amazing grace! how sweet the sound-that saved a wretch like me!  I once was lost but now am found. . . .”

These opening words from John Newton’s famous gospel song acknowledge the reality of our lost condition without Jesus Christ. It is the natural state of every human being until Christ “finds” them. Of course, God knows where we are, so the idea of being “lost” refers to things from our perspective.

We, apart from God, have no idea why we exist, where we are going, and why life is so difficult. When we repent of our sin which separates us from God, and accept His forgiveness, we are, as John Newton wrote, “found!” This also means that we now know where we came from, why we exist, and where we are going after our time on this earth.

The Bible would say that we are “saved,” and that we are Christians.

For that reason, we should think and act differently from those who remain lost. Sadly, the mindset that characterizes those who do not know Christ dominates not only America’s culture but also many churches and Christians.

And that should not be!

If you are a Christian, a believer in Christ, I am writing this particular article for you, though I hope others find it interesting.

One of the most serious current threats to the cause of Christ, that is, to Christianity, is the similarity between the lives of those who profess to know Christ, and those who do not. The distinctions which have historically separated followers of Christ from those the Bible termed “lost” have largely disappeared.

The issues that plague our secular culture, such as depression, divorce, abortion, loneliness and so on, are present at alarming rates within the church community as well. It is clear that the resources available from God for Christians are not being accessed, and we are forced to conclude that believers have largely chosen to follow the world rather than Christ.

John wrote that many religious leaders believed in Christ but would not confess Him publicly “because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God,” (John 12:43).

Jesus warned the Disciples of this problem, and that they could not please both men and God. They would have to choose one or the other; and if they choose Him, it might cost them dearly!

Christ’s warning to His disciples that they would be persecuted, and possibly killed was a forthright acknowledgement that if they lived as He did, they would be hated by the world!

However, the contrast between followers of God and the world did not begin with Christ, of course, but can be traced back to Cain and Abel. The hatred of unbelievers for God’s people is not a recent phenomenon. The Scriptures state that Cain killed Abel because Abel’s works were good, and Cains were evil.

In like manner Old Testament prophets, such as Isaiah, were not executed because they delivered a ‘seeker friendly’ message to the leaders and people of Israel, but rather exposed their sin!

And of course,  the same persecution continued with Christ’s Apostles, all of whom, according to tradition, were martyred except for John. There is a well-established pattern here, and we ought not miss its clear implications for us.

In more recent times, Mark Twain commented that “there is nothing more irritating than a good example.” 

Apparently, as poorly as we Christians have followed Christ, there is enough of Him showing through that many find us intolerable. The point being it is impossible to please the enemies of Christ without betraying Him!

There are clearly things that Christians may participate in as the world does. The scriptures do not demand asceticism, so we may own homes, take vacations, and so on, but there are other activities and attitudes which have no place in the believer’s life.

Because the nation has rejected God and the Bible the truth is despised. Lying is endemic to the culture and political arenas but should find no home among Christians. Paul was adamant, “let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” (Ephesians 4:25).

“Fudging” on the truth or out-right lying is often enticing and apparently beneficial, but it must be shunned.

When a significant percentage of the population routinely lies, the foundations of society collapse. It becomes impossible to trust people and relationships fall apart. One cannot therein transact business or develop personal friendships that will endure the pressures of life.

The current divide over the conflict in Gaza is also symptomatic of the extent to which lying has infected the very warp and woof of American society. We are divided into two camps each of which has their own set of “facts” and their own “reality.”

Such is untenable.

The secular Left has created and normalized this deception by convincing many that history, sexual norms, and cultural mores were nothing more than social “constructs,” that is ideas imposed on the public by powerful people for their own benefit but having no substance or objective reality of their own.

In doing this they rendered historic leaders, and anyone with apparent authority suspect.

What many miss is that Liars lie, but if they convince enough people that their opponents also lie, the public doesn’t know who they can trust, and the society collapses into division and chaos.

Christians ought to be so clearly recognized for their honesty and integrity that when the liars accuse us of lying, those accusations fall on deaf ears.  Sadly, we Christians have failed in this. While we may lie less than the lost do, there have been enough lies perpetrated by public Christian figures, mega church pastors and prosperity gospelers, to undermine the credibility of Christians in general, and to cast a shadow across the Gospel itself.

The ultimate harm in this is the disrepute cast upon the name of Christ Himself!

The current compromise of so many Christians with the culture is not new. A poet of the past commented wryly that “the world is too much with us,” and the Apostle James wrote a scathing denunciation of the failure saying, “adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?  Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself the enemy of God,” (James 4:4).

Salt historically was used to preserve food, and light was an important tool to counter the dangers and risk of darkness. Christ told His followers that they were “the salt and light of the world,” meaning that it is incumbent upon us to be different from the world, to contrast with the world and to confront the damaging effects of sin on the world.

It is a difficult, generally unpopular, and even dangerous mission we have been sent upon; but the evidence of our failure to date is ubiquitous. Children die in the womb, of drugs on the streets, and as victims of predators lurking in the schools and social networking forums.

Young people are depressed, hopeless, and like sheep without shepherds, they flounder about to be snared and destroyed by evil men and organizations who masquerade as their friends and benefactors.

Yes, it is a daunting task before us, but we have the power of the Almighty God and the promises of His word, and thus can do battle knowing there are victims who will be rescued and victories that will be won.

And when it is all over, if we have been faithful, when we stand before our Creator and Savior, we will hear those glorious words, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

That will make all the slanders of the world, the hatred of the rebels, and the attacks of God’s enemies to fade to nothing!

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us,” (Romans 8:18 NKJV).