The Gospel is For Everyone

In light of the horrific events that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia where racial tensions once again boiled over into violence and tragedy, Pastor Ellery reminded us that racial and socioeconomic difficulties have been transpiring ever since humans have been interacting with each other. Because of our fallen nature, there have always been comparative problems such as belief in God or non-belief, differences in skin color, social and economic divisions, and on and on. Even the newly born church in the New Testament had to deal with this. Paul touched on this while instructing Timothy as seen in the passage shared today from 1 Timothy 2:1-7. The gospel once again provides the answer to this issue as it does for every other issue mankind has to deal with.
The early church was a mixture of races, cultures, social and economic diversity.

Jew, Gentile, rich, poor, slave, free; people from every walk of life were coming together with one common bond - they had been drawn back to God through the gift of the death and resurrection of Jesus that paid the price for sin. Most of the time we tend to re-group with people of similar looks, wealth, and social status, so we sometimes become sterile and impersonally detached to the needs of those different from us. That is why Paul encouraged Timothy to have believers pray for all people, especially for those in authority.

I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all those who are in authority... 1 Timothy 2:1-2
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We lose sight that if we pray for our enemies and they come to Christ, they are no longer our enemies and more importantly an enemy of God. Pastor Ellery shared a quote from Philip Yancey that sums it up well (you can read the entire interview here):

 We are fighting battles with evil and injustice – yet, as Martin Luther King Jr. used to say, we fight with different weapons, the weapons of grace. As he said, you can pass laws to force a white man to serve a black man in a restaurant, but you can’t pass a law requiring the white man to love the black man. We have higher goals than politics, and you’ll never attain those goals through politics alone.
I get concerned when Christians see politics as the answer. Politics is an adversary sport in which you win by slandering your opponent. Jesus showed a different way: Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.
The early Christians faced a far more hostile environment in the Roman Empire than we do in the United States today. They set in motion a new community, pioneer settlements of the kingdom of God that could show the world a better way to be human. Tend to the sick, rescue the abandoned babies, free the slaves, love the oppressors, care for the poor – they lived in a new way, and the world took notice.

Laws and politics have never been successful in changing our hearts. We need to remember that regardless of how bad people are to one another, the gospel - the good news of what Jesus did for us - is for all of us. Jesus loves and He died for the white supremacist, even when they burn crosses and harm people just because of the amount of melanin in their skin; He loves and He died for those in the violent fringes of the black lives matter movement, even when they are rioting and looting; He loves and He died for the radical Islamic terrorist, even when they kill in the name of their god.
The truth is that we are all broken and sinful and are in desperate need of the saving grace of Jesus. The world needs to see the example of true Christian community where people of multiple cultural, ethnic, and economic backgrounds can come together in love and unity. That is how we live in a new way, and and that’s how the world will take notice.

John Clark

John Clark is a husband to Julie, a father of one son living in Valrico, Florida. He has an Associate Degree of Theology from Life Christian University, and serves at Life Center of Brandon where he is a teacher and writer