The following message has been circulating among my Facebook friends "status messages" this morning:
"I believe in Jesus Christ. One face booker has challenged all believers to put this on their wall.....In the Bible it says, if you deny me in front of your peers, I will deny you in front of my Father, at The Gates of Heaven. This is a simple test. If you love God and you are not ...afraid to show it, repost this."
The unspoken accusation in that message is: "if you don't repost this message, you either 'don't love God' or 'you do love God but are too ashamed or too afraid to say so publicly.'" I absolutely reject this kind of statement.
I believe in Jesus Christ. I do not need anyone to "dare" me or to "shame" me into saying so. Neither will I "dare" or try to "shame" my friends, family, or total strangers into saying so. Jesus ALSO said, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me." (John 10:27). The FB status going around that tells me to post it in my status is reminiscent of the chain letter that threatens 7 years of bad luck to the person who breaks the chain. I do not criticize those who do post that status message--I commend you for stating where you stand on the issue. Even so, we are called to ENCOURAGE one another, not to try to coerce one another using shame, or even greed, as motivators.
If you need to test your faith and or courage, there is a better "test" than your Facebook status:
"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:35
If you are still in doubt, pay attention to this: "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of Godso that you may know that you have eternal life." 1 John 5:12
Making your Facebook status the litmus test of your faith seems kind of silly, doesn't it? If you want to testify about your faith in Jesus Christ, by all means, do so. If you want to honor Jesus in your Facebook status, do so. But please, don't do so in order to impress or appease someone else who might be wondering about you. That sounds an awful lot like what Jesus said to His followers about those who love to pray out in the open:
"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." (Matthew 6:5-6).
Doing what we do as Christians in order to be noticed by men, Jesus says, is one of the things that "the hypocrites" do.
There is a higher motive:
"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." (Colossians 3:23-24)
By all means: do bear witness of your faith in God our Heavenly Father, the Creator of Heaven and earth. And surely do bear witness of the Only Begotten Son of God, God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of all humankind. Please do not, however, seek to please God apart from Faith, and, insofar as other people are concerned, "... let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:16.
God KNOWS whether you believe in Him or whether you don't. Don't testify to others to PROVE anything to yourself or to your friends. Testify to others because you truly have compassion on them and have love for them, and earnestly desire that he or she "should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16b).
I DO believe in Jesus Christ. More than that, I have repented of my sin and received His forgiveness. He has given me a "new birth", I am "born again." (John 3). I am "in Christ" and therefore, I am a "new creation. The old has passed away, the new has come." (2 Corinthians 5:17).
I don't ALWAYS say so publicly. I have missed many opportunities to bear witness of my faith in my Savior. I regret those missed chances, and I have asked Jesus to forgive me many times for my failure to speak. (He has always forgiven me and cleansed me from my unrighteousness -1 John 1:9. He's good like that.) Think about those times when you were confronted or challenged or dared to do something, and you hesitated, looking to the left and right to see whether anyone was watching you. When the Holy Spirit of God nudges you to speak or act as He directs, then DO IT PROMPTLY and don't bother to look around to see if anyone else is noticing. Just look at Jesus--meet His gaze, and do as He asks.
May God bless you all today.
"Jesus Laughing" -one of my favorite imaginings of the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ, my Savior, King and Master.
