Mahatma Gandhi is said to have once observed, speaking to professed Christians: “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. You Christians are so unlike your Christ” [1].
At a time when Christianity is being increasingly confused with racism, the abuse of the vulnerable, and the enlistment of secular government as a means of forcing the conscience, the words of India’s great liberator have never seemed more relevant.
Whenever I see the bumper sticker that reads, “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven,” I cringe! Christians may take comfort from this, but I doubt anyone else does! For indeed, the past two millennia have witnessed an incessant, nauseating parade of Christian imperfection. The litany is long and grotesque. Racism. Slavery. Inquisition. Industrial brutality. Ethnic cleansing. Monks beaming while heretics burn. Business tycoons declaring it their Christian right to let workers starve. Men in bedsheets setting fire to two sticks of wood, claiming to glorify Jesus. Churchmen turning a blind eye as trainloads of a despised race chug endlessly toward the Final Solution. Clergy engaging in sexual abuse while declaring themselves helpless against the flesh. Professed Christians hailing tyrants (or wannabe tyrants) as Christendom’s saviors, despite their despicable character flaws and appeals to violence.
And the list goes on.
God’s Character Illumines a Darkened World
Jesus declared at one point, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). Yet in His Sermon on the Mount, delivered at the beginning of His ministry, He said to His followers, “Ye are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14). Two verses later He speaks of how the world will respond to this revelation:
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven (verse 16).
In other words, it is the character of God, revealed through His people, that brings glory to God in the minds and witness of the world, even of the unconverted. The glory of Jesus’ character (Ex. 33:18-19; 34:6-7; Rom. 3:23), revealed through His saints (Isa. 60:1-3; Eph. 3:21; Phil. 1:11; Col. 1:26-27; Rev. 10:7; 14:7), is what enables them to be the light of a world in darkness. In Ellen White’s words:
While our Saviour is the great source of illumination, forget not, O Christian, that He is revealed through humanity [2].
The verbal preaching of the gospel is important, even imperative. But even more imperative is the practical demonstration of its principles in human lives. Wouldn’t it be remarkable if professed Christians serving in government, business, and other capacities were known as the most honest, the most considerate of the temporal needs of others, and the most transparent in the practice of both private and public integrity?
Conclusion: The Convergence of the Two Ls
The Bible speaks of the final proclamation of God’s message for humanity in the book of Revelation, where the first angel in Chapter 14 is heard giving the summons: “Fear God, and give glory to Him” (verse 7). Elsewhere the Bible identifies the glory of God as His character (Ex. 33:18-19; 34:6-7; Rom. 3:23), and states elsewhere that this glory is to be revealed before all the world (Num. 14:21; Isa. 40:5). Equally clear in both Testaments is that this glory is to be revealed through God’s people ((Isa. 60:1-3; Eph. 3:21; Phil. 1:11; Col. 1:26-27; Rev. 10:7; 14:7). The Bible even says this was the reason humanity was created in the first place:
I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back; bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;
Even every one that is called by My name; for I have created him for My glory (Isa. 43:6-7).
The modern prophet speaks of how this demonstration of practical holiness will constitute the final display of God’s glory to the human family, the ultimate witness of God’s people to a perishing world:
The last rays of merciful light, the last message of mercy to be given to the world, is a revelation of His character of love. The children of God are to manifest His glory. In their own life and character they are to reveal what the grace of God has done for them.
The light of the Sun of Righteousness is to shine forth in good works—in words of truth and deeds of holiness [3].
Among earth’s inhabitants, scattered in every land, there are those who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Like the stars of heaven, which appear only at night, these faithful ones will shine forth when darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people. In heathen Africa, in the Catholic lands of Europe and of South America, in China, in India, in the islands of the sea, and in all the dark corners of the earth, God has in reserve a firmament of chosen ones that will yet shine forth amidst the darkness, revealing clearly to an apostate world the transforming power of obedience to His law. Even now they are appearing in every nation, among every tongue and people; and in the hour of deepest apostasy, when Satan’s supreme effort is made to cause “all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond,” to receive, under penalty of death, the sign of allegiance to a false rest day, these faithful ones, “blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke,” will “shine as lights in the world.” Revelation 13:16; Philippians 2:15. The darker the night, the more brilliantly will they shine [4].
Here we see how our Lord’s declaration in Matthew 24:14 (“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.”) will involve the ultimate convergence of what are often called the two l’s—life and lip.
Another statement echoes these same thoughts, making clear the ultimate means whereby the world will at last be warned prior to the return of Jesus:
The world can only be warned by seeing those who believe the truth sanctified through the truth, acting upon high and holy principles, showing in a high, elevated sense, the line of demarcation between those who keep the commandments of God and those who trample them under their feet [5].
REFERENCES
1. Mahatma Gandhi, quoted by Bill Wilson, Christianity in the Crosshairs (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, 2004), p. 74.
2. Ellen G. White, Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, p. 40.
3. ----Christ’s Object Lessons, pp. 415-416.
4. ----Prophets and Kings, pp. 188-189.
5. ----SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, p. 980.
Pastor Kevin Paulson holds a Bachelor’s degree in theology from Pacific Union College, a Master of Arts in systematic theology from Loma Linda University, and a Master of Divinity from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He served the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for ten years as a Bible instructor, evangelist, and local pastor. He writes regularly for Liberty magazine and does script writing for various evangelistic ministries within the denomination. He continues to hold evangelistic and revival meetings throughout the North American Division and beyond, and is a sought-after seminar speaker relative to current issues in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He presently resides in Berrien Springs, Michigan