…that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders… (1 Thessalonians 4:12, NIV)
Yes, you and your buddies may play all forms of golf. You may give knee-knocking putts and allow for mulligans through the green. You may count no penalties and kick balls out of unplayable lies. You may declare, “I’m done,” pick up your ball, and move on to the next hole.
But when tournament time comes, you’d better be ready. That’s when the playing field is made level. Everyone competes by the same set of rules. And—to be fair across the board—handicaps kick in, placing everyone on the same plane.
One day, tournament time will come for us all in an eternal sense. Everyone will stand before the same God, the one who understands both sides of justice—the side that sets a universal standard and the side that recognizes the innate limitations of some set against the innate skills of others (Luke 12:48). This is the God we will understand in that hour as completely fair, because this is the God who knows each of us completely.
But for now, we live in another place. And often, when I am doing my very best to set forth the arguments of Scripture in front of those who want no God telling them what to do, what I find is not so much that their arguments outclass mine. Rather, I discover that they really have no intention of playing fair. When the “hard evidence” for God runs out, they mock the fact that I must rely on “faith” to complete the circle. Yet when the gaps in their own reasoning require them to take similar spanning steps of faith, they have no problem with that.
This isn’t really news. Paul essentially told the Corinthians that “people won’t get it until they get it.” That is, without the Holy Spirit, there is no illumination; all they hear in our gospel words adds up to foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:18).
I won’t stop talking with friends like these, especially in my attempts to get them to at least think fairly. For we know that people will not hear unless someone is sent to preach to them (Romans 10:14). But arguing is another story altogether. I do not want to go there, playing into the unbeliever’s hand.
Instead, I want my life to look more like the quiet, hands-on ambition Paul lauded before the Thessalonians, the life that levels the playing field not by clever reasoning but by godly living. This is the kind of life that will raise the valleys and lower the mountains, making the way accessible for those God calls to see his glory (Isaiah 40:4). This is the life that will win respect in the way no argument can. And when respect is won, the real conversation can begin.
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Jeff Hopper
February 14, 2012
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