Today, I was reminded of Martin Lloyd-Jones and his commentary on Ephesians 5:18-6:9. Remember, he lived in the mid-20th Century. Communism was a real foe and a great concern. In a chapter of his book, Life in the Spirit entitled “The Christian’s Priorities,” he wrote:
“The business of the church is not to deal with
political or social or economic conditions as such… The church’s task primarily
is to evangelize, and to bring people to a knowledge of God. Then, having done
that, she is to teach them how to live this life under God as His people. The
church is not here to reform the world, for the world cannot be reformed. The
business of the church is to evangelize, to preach the Gospel of salvation to
me who are blinded by sin and under the domination and the power of the devil.
The moment the church begins to enter into the details of politics and
economics, she is doing something that militates against her primary task of
evangelism” (pp. 318-319).
“The Christian message is primarily concerned
to produce Christians. It preaches its Gospel, it convicts men of sin, it calls
them to Jesus’ blood, it brings them to the Word by which they can be born
again by the power of the Spirit, it changes men… As the church does that, she
is indirectly doing something else; she is obviously influencing the whole
personality of such people – their mind, their thinking, their understanding.
And the moment that beings to happen to men they begin to see things in a
different way and they begin to apply their thinking to daily living” (p. 326).
“The tragedy today is that while the church is
talking about these particular problems and dealing directly with politics and
economics and social conditions, no Christians are being produced, and the
conditions are worsening and the problems are mounting. It is as the church
produces Christians that she changes the conditions; but always indirectly” (p.
328).
“The church cannot change
conditions; and she is not meant to change conditions. And the moment she tries
to do so she is in various ways shutting the door of evangelistic opportunity.
If I attack Communism, the Communists are immediately on the defensive, and are
not going to listen to my Gospel; they will not even give it a hearing. I must
avoid that. I must not launch a direct attack on any of these things, whatever
they may be. My concern is a preacher of the Gospel is with the souls of men,
my business is to produce Christians; and the larger number of Christians the
greater will be the volume of Christian thinking. It is the business of
individual Christians to enter Parliament, as Wilberforce did... It is because
there are so few Christians in the world today that ungodliness prevails"
(p. 329).
I think that
Lloyd-Jones has a strong word (at least for me) today. I must not be ashamed of
the gospel. It is the power of God. I need to witness. I need to witness more.
I need to witness more boldly. As I evangelize and help to plant evangelistic
churches, then NE Ohio may change.
“Lord, help
me be a missionary cleverly disguised as a pastor who looks for opportunities
to have Gospel conversations every day. Give me the grace to be one who regularly
invites people to new life in Christ. Help me go to heaven and take as many
people with me as I possibly can! Burden me to actually make disciples – to
lead people to Jesus in one-on-one conversations. And bless my brothers in
Christ with a burden to win the lost, to seize many opportunities to point
people to Jesus, and to be bold as a faithful witness. Let me not be nearly as
concerned with having an influence in society as I am with having an impact on
souls. Make it so, in Jesus’ name, Amen!”
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