Stand Out For Jesus

DEVOTION

2 CORINTHIANS

STAND OUT FOR JESUS

2 Cor 4:1-6

4:1 Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

NIV

Once again a beginning to a much longer dissertation, but we must view one of the truths within this portion first. It might be the signs of the times as we are seeing more and more churches try to create an image of not being a church. Maybe we should not judge them as using deceptive ways to entice people to enter, but that is what it appears to be. Hopefully the rest is not true in that they distort the word of God too, but maybe just water it down a bit as not to scare people off right away. But the fact is that the truth of the Gospel is veiled to unbelievers, to those who are perishing. It still comes down to free will. People have to hear the unabashed truth of the Gospel. They have to hear the simple fact that in order to see the Kingdom of God they must be born again. Those are the words of Jesus, not some theologian, although Jesus was the ultimate theologian. Those are the words of Jesus, spoken straight forward, not some pastor who thinks he has a better way of presenting it. Jesus sent forth the truth plainly, Paul said he set forth the truth plainly. Should we do any less? We cannot use any form of deception in presenting the gospel, either in our church or in our life. We must let the light shine in the darkness. We must stand up, stand out and stand for the truth of God, both as a church building in the community and in our lives among our community. The fact remains some people have been blinded by the god of this age. Our light must shine so brightly that we overpower the darkness that veils their eyes and hearts. Yet we know some will never leave the darkness, they will choose to remain under the veil, influenced by the god of this world, which does use deception in order to trap its victims. Knowing the truth, we must make sure we do not far prey to those deceptions, all the while proclaiming plainly the truth of the gospel. We do need to be among the unbeliever. We do need to establish some means of communication, interaction and trust with them in order to present the truth. Surely the days of street corner evangelism has passed, but we cannot replace it with deceptive ways in order to maybe get the message to them. The gospel must be preached, Jesus Christ crucified, buried, resurrected and ascended must be preached plainly so that people might be saved, be born again. We cannot afford to allow people to evolve into what they think is a relationship with God. They must be presented with the facts plainly and openly. Being born again is an event in their lives, a moment in time when the veil is lifted and they see the truth and response. Our task, our calling is to be that light shining in the darkness, to present the truth, unashamed of it, open and without deception. We need to stand out for Jesus.