Good morning. I try rather hard to avoid the political arena with my thoughts for the day, which is more difficult than it might sound since many of our spiritual, Christian values are under attack from current politics. But in my recent reading I came across this quote from the German Pastor Martin Neimoller. Pastor Neimoller was writing from Berlin in the late 1930s as the Nazis were purging Germany from those they considered “undesirables.”
“First they came for the Jews; but I did nothing because I am not a Jew. Then they came for the Socialists; but I did nothing because I am not a Socialist. Then they came for the Catholics; but I did nothing because I am not a Catholic. Then, they came for me, but by then there was no-one left to help me.”
With today’s thought I would like to direct us to considering what it means to stand up for Jesus in a world that feels increasingly hostile to Biblical truth and principles.
We might imagine that standing up for Christ involves preaching on street corners, traveling as a missionary to far off countries, or debating an atheist professor. However, standing up for Christ actually begins much closer to home. Standing up for Christ begins, first of all, with a personal confession of faith.
Romans 10:9-10 says, “Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
Secondly, standing up for Christ involves the pursuit of personal holiness. We read in Romans 6:22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. Although we are declared righteous in God’s sight based on the righteousness of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21), we are also called to grow in Christ as we experience holiness that is ours through Him. Standing up for Christ without pursuing personal holiness is nothing but hypocrisy. Jesus pointed out the hypocrisy of claiming righteousness without personal holiness when he addressed the Pharisees in Matthew 23:28: In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
Thirdly, standing up for Christ means loving others and doing good to them. We should especially do good to fellow believers (Galatians 6:10). At this point, you might want to object and ask when we will get to evangelism and reaching the lost. However, loving each other is one powerful way in which we show the world we are Christ’s disciples. Jesus told His disciples, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” John 13:35. In order to stand up for Christ, we must love the body of Christ, which is made up of our fellow believers.
Fourthly, standing up for Christ involves proclaiming the truth of the gospel boldly and unashamedly. Mark 16:15 says, “And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.'” Paul wrote in Romans 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.'” Standing up for Jesus means that we seek every opportunity to share the joy of knowing Him, the gospel is, after all, The Good News!
Finally, standing up for Christ means being patient and prayerful toward those who oppose Him and us. Second Timothy 2:24-26 instructs, “And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”
In order to stand up for Christ, we must also pray for those who oppose and persecute us (Matthew 5:44-48).
To sum it up, standing up for our faith in an anti-Christian world means living a life of faith with intentionality and integrity. We must first know Christ and then strive to be like Him, recognizing that this work is only accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit. We should treat others with love and respect. And we must share the truth with those who don’t yet know Christ, praying that God will soften their hearts and draw them to Himself.
This isn’t an easy task; we were never told it would be. But standing up for our Lord in a world that feels increasingly hostile to Him is always a worthy effort.
Vern