When People Think of You, Do They Think of Christ?

Acts 17:15-22 18,1/ Jn 16:12-15

After Paul’s great success in Philippi, he goes to Athens: what a disappointment.

Paul tries to change his approach to the people by giving them a more heady look at their way of understanding God.  Of course, as we can see in this reading, he fails miserably.  At least what he considers to be a miserable failure.  Paul seems to be trying to take things to a “new level.” And as we know from his other writings, after he left Athens for Corinth, he was determined to preach Christ and Christ crucified only.

Would anyone take the place of Paul today?  I don’t think there’s any pattern we can better follow that what Paul followed here.  Today, more than ever, we need people willing to speak Christ and Christ crucified.

I know that may seem politically incorrect. In fact in recent years we’ve had the ten commandments stripped from a courtroom because it was too politically [in]sensitive for those who do not wish to look at our Judeo-Christian heritage.  But now more than any other time in our western civilization we have a need for clear truth about Who Jesus is and about what His mission means for us.

I put the following in my Christmas card this last year:

Christmas

Christ’s Mass

Mass = Mission

Christ’s Mission: The Incarnation John 3:16

Maybe it’s time we started living that incarnational mission of Christ ourselves: “I [will] speak of nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”(cf. 1 Cor 2:2)

To be sure, we live in this world and must face a lot of the things of this world.  Paul himself made tents.  But when people think of us, do they think of Christ?  This is what Paul saw in his failing in Athens.  May we not fail in a similar way.

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