This week, a clip from late-night television host Stephen Colbert stirred social media. A devout Catholic, Colbert doesn’t shy away from discussing religion even on air. Today, I’m not focusing on the clip or even the faith of Stephen Colbert. I’m interested in the response. As you can imagine, it varied. Some consider him to be thoughtful and earnest. He offered a compelling vision of his faith, whether those who heard it agreed or not. Others didn’t have as much appreciation. More to the point, many Christians thought he was placating his Hollywood audience. I read a lot of responses to the clip from those Christians. So much of it had little to do with anything he said. No, what seemed to bother a lot of us is that people outside the faith liked what he had to say. If they liked it, then it must not have been gospel truth. He watered down the message of Jesus. The relationship between church and faith and culture has always been tense. We worry that every bit of culture brings us closer to evil. We want to reach culture without being a part of it. One of the signs, apparently, that we’re too close to its grip is if culture thinks well of us. If they like us, we must not be speaking the truth. We do need to be careful. Yes, some people can’t live knowing there might be someone else in the world that doesn’t like them. That may lead them away from certain conversations. It’s also true that some people can’t be faithful if they’re not agitating other people. Both are extremes we can avoid. We know the idea of speaking the truth in love. So, let’s consider more the idea of culture thinking well of us. And let’s use 1 Timothy as one biblical example. As Timothy is building the church in Ephesus, he needs instruction. That’s what the letter is. Part of the instruction is knowing who to assign as leaders. There are more than a dozen qualities laid out for anyone seeking to be a bishop. By now, I assume you can imagine which qualification I’m thinking of. 1 Timothy 3:7 says, “Morever, he (the bishop) must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace and the snare of the devil.” Is it possible to dilute the gospel for selfish reasons? Absolutely! Does the fact that some outside of faith think well of us mean we’re off track? Of course not. Young Timothy would have thought it a quality to admire in a potential bishop. If they like us, which is a strange phrase, by the way, it could mean we’re actually living a humble and peaceful life. We could be living in a way that exemplifies the love of God. It could be people are responding to our witness. Or maybe we happen to be nice people. Stay blessed…john |
John Fletcher
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