"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:4-7 ESV
I've been stuck on this verse all week. Even going so far as to committing it to memory. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, so I'm just going to type and see what happens.
Yesterday I was doing a word study on what Paul meant when he tells us to let our reasonableness be known to everyone. But today's culture dictates that we be unreasonable. With information being reduced to bite size elements, it seems everyone is screaming their bullet points in hopes of being heard. But really, it seems no one is listening to anyone. All you have to do is watch pundits argue on the news or look at websites, watch commercials to see that it is all about being heard. We must get our point across, at all costs!
In my years of working as a lobbyist, I can't tell you how many times I was trying to communicate my position on an issue and not listening to the other side. Instead of actually listening, I would think about what I needed to say next. Often times in near desperation I'd say to myself, "Why don't they get it? Why don't they see it my way? Why can't they just be reasonable? "
Philippians 4:5 above, Paul tells us that we need to demonstrate reasonableness. The Greek word he uses is "epieikes" (pronounced ep-ee-i-kace') which means to be appropriately mild and gentle, to demonstrate forbearance. Paul is telling us treat others reasonably so others can see Christ in our gentleness and in our forbearance. We are able to this because we have the confidence of the Holy Spirit through rejoicing in the Lord always.
The world has a generally negative view of evangelicals, in my humble opinion, because we are seen as not being reasonable. Because we try to talk the Gospel message to people instead of giving an account for our faith with gentle love. I remember at college, two "evangelicals", Brother Jed and Sister Cindy delivered the message of hellfire and brimstone with a bullhorn daily from the Oval at The Ohio State University. They literally used to yell at students as they passed by with the warning of eternity in Hell and calling us all fornicators, idolaters and drunks. Students would shout obscenities back and argue. I'm sure the entire scene was not pleasing to God. While Jed and Cindy may have been correct from a doctrine perspective, I believe they could not be more wrong in how they delivered the message of saving grace. We can still hold to the truth of our faith and be reasonable at the same time. In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us to be the light into the world and to let our light shine before others so they can see our good works and that God is glorified (Matthew 5:16). A part of being that light is being reasonable with believers and unbelievers alike and giving the truth in love.
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