I Timothy 6: 11-16, “But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.”
There is a disturbing trend in some “churches” and has been for some time to try to make Jesus more accessible. In order to “gain the world” these so-called churches compromise truth and downplay who Jesus is in order to make Him more palatable to worldlings. Towards that end, such churchlings downplay who Jesus is, as well as ignoring His holiness and demands that we too be holy. Jesus, rather than shown as the sinless demanding Son of God, is often portrayed as cool.
Cool? Jesus? Lord of Lords, King of Kings, Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, and Savior, yes…but cool?
No.
Looking at what passes as churches today, the message that many are giving is this: Jesus needs us to portray Him as “cool” in order for the world to “accept” Him. Jesus is GOD. By Him everything was created. In Him all things hold together. Through Him salvation is offered. But, apparently that isn’t enough. Changes must be made. Jesus must be presented as our buddy, and as personable, personal, and cool in order for anyone to even have a hope of desiring Him.
Jesus is cool and He’s your buddy. How sick is that?
And that’s not all. The church that He died to establish? Well, that church has to be made relevant, must be in tune with the times, absolutely has to be culture friendly, perhaps even seeker friendly (a now older term but one that has left it’s horrible stain upon Christendom)…or folks just won’t be interested. At least, so we’re told.
Well, okay, yes, I agree, we must be relevant and relate to the culture we must be seeker friendly but there the similarities end. See, it isn’t a modern worldly sin-filled society that the church needs to be relevant to, it is the Lord; and the only Seeker we need to be worried about pleasing is the God Who seeks us and finds us according to His will alone. And the culture? Well the church must be relevant to the culture in such a way that we impact the culture with the truth of God’s Word rather than, as most (gag…) ahem, churches, do which is to present watered down, culturally attuned, garbage, as permissible to the Holy Lamb of God.
Too many so-called Christians never even realize this because they are culturally literate but spiritually and biblically illiterate. Too many in the church haven’t actually read the Word given to us by the One we claim to worship. But that’s okay. I mean, surely it’s okay…right? God understands how busy we are. He understands how boring and dry the Bible can be. All those types and shadows, rules and sayings, commands and people…it’s just too hard for us to actually get into and understand.
Anyway, God won’t mind because He just loves us so much. And He just wants us to be happy. And if we’re a bit more moral than those around us and we attach His Son’s name to everything, then it–and we–are Christian. Right?
And anyway, those of us that would object to what they’re doing, to their methods, just don’t understand how nice a guy Jesus really is. Jesus is just so cool and it’s cool to worship Him we must try to be cool too so all of those folks we’re bringing in will be comfortable.
We dress up (or down as the case may be or, in the case of some, barely dress at all…after all, Jesus just wants us to be happy) and head to what was formerly known as church where we sing our man-centered mantras (in places that look more like rock arenas than churches) while waving our pretty little manicured hands in the air (when we’re not sipping our lattes). We weave back and forth and bounce up and down and clap our hands and sing about our God lighting our fire or Jesus being our boyfriend and we fool ourselves into thinking that we are actually worshiping Almighty God.
And we’re just so proud of ourselves for it, don’t ya know?
But is God pleased? I don’t think so. In fact, I’m certain of it.
We can look all we want and we’re never going to find a verse that calls Jesus cool or tells us to “Go into all the world and teach them that Jesus is our buddy.” Or that He’s nice and we’re to be nice, too. Or relevant, bow to culture, or teach Scripture through the lens of color, sex, or whatever it is that makes us passingly happy today. Not a single verse. I’ve looked as have many who are far smarter and wiser and more studied than I am.
Do you suppose that we can’t find it in the Bible because it simply isn’t there?
One day we will all have to answer for all that we have done. One day we will also have to answer to God for the way we have presented Him to others, for the way we have “worshiped” Him (if we dare even call it that), for our devotion to self and our ways instead of devotion to the Lord and His. For our love of the world.
For daring to present the Son of God as cool.
Jesus isn’t cool but He is God. It’s about time we remembered that and gave Him the honor and worship He deserves.
Soli Deo Gloria!
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