“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1
When I was a teenager in church, we often sang the hymn written in 1858 by George Duffield “Stand up, Stand up for Jesus”. I loved it because it made me feel so strong and so brave and I wanted to stand up for Jesus. I still want to stand up for Jesus, but it is not as easy now as it was then. When I was a teenager going to church talking about Jesus was expected of Christian young people. My sister Cecil and I made our parents proud when we both married doctors and went to the mission field. No one ridiculed or persecuted us. Things are different today. Today Christians who want to talk about Jesus are banned in schools and colleges. Students are taught to “discard your parents’ religion so you can be free to be yourself.” But not all Christians have fallen for that lie. There are some who know that we have a right to stand for Jesus and are willing to exercise that right.
There are many in the church who are willing to stand for Jesus but don’t really know who he is. We cannot stand for what we do not know. If we want to know Jesus, we must know him through the Scriptures. It’s in the Bible that we learn who Jesus is and what he has done for us. And it’s in the Bible that we learn that finally Jesus will win over all the evil in the world. So it’s important to know what you are talking about when you exercise your right to free speech. But when you do know who Jesus is, you must stand up and speak for him.
Where I live, there are some who say that in the dining room we should not talk about religion or politics. Since I believe I have first amendment rights, I tell them that I will speak of Jesus and whatever else I believe to be right. If I don’t stand up for Jesus in such little ways, then the devil will win in little ways. When he wins in little ways, eventually all those little ways become the norm and we begin to believe that we can’t speak of Jesus anywhere except in church. We are constantly told by the party in power that we can’t speak about Jesus in the secular world. Yes we can!
Eric Metaxas said, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil.” When we should speak up for Jesus but are silent out of fear, we are complicit in evil. We still have freedom of speech in this country, but we may not have it long if Christians become afraid to stand up for Jesus with our words.
When your teacher (either in school or college) tells you that you may not speak or write about Jesus, you need to say, “I will speak of Jesus because I have free speech.”
When your workplace tells you that you may not speak about Jesus, you need to say, “I will speak of Jesus because I have free speech.”
When your club or your friends tell you that you may not speak about Jesus, you need to say, “I will speak of Jesus because I have free speech.” If we do not exercise our free speech while we have it, we may lose it.
If the disciples had been silent instead of taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world, where would we be today?
It’s easy to be discouraged as a Christian to live in today’s world. We need to remind each other that we are to “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13). We know that in the end, Christ will win, and if we are in Christ, we win too.
Stand up for Jesus today!
Amen and amen! We'll said.
ReplyDelete