Christians have a habit of talking too much.
Often I am accused of talking too much. I know I can talk under wet cement and I do love the sound of my own voice just a little too much but that is not what I am trying to talk about here.
They too often try to nail down the nuances of every teaching in scripture. They compile their discussions into ever so scholarly publications. They categorize them and do masters and doctoral theses on them. The sell each books on the latest topic and in the end get no closer to answer the questions about scripture that they have had before.
How did we end up with so much verboseness in our attempts to be disciples of Christ? I have a theory. We are going to talk to someone about something. Far too many of us (preachers included) choose not to talk to unbelievers in their lives about Jesus. Maybe it's too confrontational or just too difficult or just not that productive (at least in our eyes). Yet, they still want to talk about Jesus so they start talking with other Christians. It's a great conversation and can be quite helpful but when it comes at the sacrifice of our Christ commissioned conversation with the lost then we have paid too high a price. We have abdicated our job as ambassadors of Christ and taken on the mantel of church savior.
The dynamic of being a disciple of Jesus is simple. You don't have to make it simple. It is simple. God loves you and me despite our sin. Jesus made that love into a human form when He chose to die on the cross for our sins. God raised Him from the dead to proclaim to everyone that He has accepted the death of Jesus. Jesus has now commissioned us to proclaim this message to all people.
We can argue about subtleties of hermeneutics, and nuances of meanings in words and the interpretation of John 13-17 with respect to the Holy Spirit but in the end, if you haven't shared the love of God with the disconnected you and I have failed at the basic challenge of Jesus for our lives.
The Bible is not a book of stats to be poured over and often quoted in discussions like we do with baseball. It is the message of God to lost humanity. It is God's story of love for the unlovely. How dare we spend more time debating each other than we do teaching those who don't know Jesus in the first place.
We love taking positions and defending them just a little too much. It is so human and so unhealthy for God's kingdom. Let's spend more time sharing the story of Jesus and less time trying to explain the truth to each other.
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