A word to my everyday brothers and sisters

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While most of what has been written in this blog series been directed to my university-educated brothers and sisters in Reformed evangelical churches, here I would like to say a few words to my everyday brothers and sisters.

If you’ve read some of the other articles in this series, you may have seen expressed in words (possibly for the first time) what you have been thinking and feeling about church for years.

You may feel anger at the way you have been overlooked and undervalued by your church.

You may feel that this justifies you leaving your church, publicly badmouthing your denomination, or just continuing to be passive and unengaged.

However, let us remember these words of Jesus:

‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven … For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.’ (Luke 6:37–38)

Why does Jesus tell us not to judge or condemn?

Jesus knows that, far too often, we forget our own sin and failings, and self-righteously look down on others and judge them. Jesus warns us that with the measure we use, it will be measured to us.

We cannot judge others, because we ourselves are sinners in need of grace and forgiveness from both God and others.

None of us is without sin. We have all wronged others, both intentionally and unintentionally. We all need God’s amazing grace that is found only in Christ Jesus.

None of us has the right to badmouth our church or denomination, or ‘throw the first stone’, for their sins against us.

Instead, we are called to show the same grace to others that we ourselves have received from God. Remember the story Jesus told of the unmerciful servant?

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?’

Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

‘Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

‘At this the servant fell on his knees before him. “Be patient with me,” he begged, “and I will pay back everything.” The servant’s master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go.

‘But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. “Pay back what you owe me!” he demanded.

‘His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, “Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.”

‘But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

‘Then the master called the servant in. “You wicked servant,” he said, “I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

‘This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.’ (Matthew 18:21–35)

Let those final words of Jesus linger in our hearts and minds: ‘This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.’

Showing grace

Can I urge you, my everyday brothers and sisters, to be gracious to your university-educated Christian brothers and sisters, who may well have wronged you?

They need your grace and forgiveness.

They need your help to see their cultural blind spots.

They need your help to better understand the people in their communities.

They need your help to understand how to engage everyday people appropriately with the gospel and then disciple them to maturity in Christ.

They need your unique, God-given gifts and abilities for their strengthening and maturing.

So rather than leave, or withdraw, or badmouth your church, consider that you have been placed in your church by God to help reach the many lost everyday people in your community.

Doing God’s work together

Despite their failings, university-educated Christians have gifts and abilities to strengthen you and the whole church so that, working together, we might all become mature followers of Christ holding out the Word of life to a dying world.

If we are going to work together – to overcome the obstacles to Reformed evangelical churches ministering to everyday people –  the university-educated Christians in those churches are going to need our everyday brothers and sisters to show grace and forgiveness.

And as a result, our churches will display the power of the gospel to destroy division, resentment, suspicion and hostility between different social and cultural groups – and to bring about a unity that results in praise and glory being given to God (Ephesians 2:14–3:11).

This article is one of a series that I’ve written about making disciples of ‘everyday people’.

It can be read on its own, but if you’d like to gain a greater understanding of how my thoughts around this important topic have developed, you may wish to read the full series of articles in order.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™