Are You Getting Punched AND Praised, or Just One or the Other?

The Jesus Way is going to get you both loved and loathed by the world. Neither reaction should be your aim, of course: we only want to hear Christ's "well done." But if nonbelievers aren't reacting to you with alternating admiration and criticism, you're doing something wrong.

The most recent case in point: Rick Warren. His book, The Purpose-Driven Life, has sold in excess of 30 million copies, and he's been widely respected for what he's done with the fame and wealth from the book: his "reverse tithing" (giving away 90% of his income to charity and living on 10%), his relief work in communities ravaged by AIDS, and his commitment to put the "civil" back in "civil discourse." But he's in a firestorm of criticism at present because he has the temerity to call homosexual behavior sin and he recently encouraged Californians to pass a proposition that would formally define marriage as between one man and one woman. Last week the criticism followed him to the national stage: gay rights advocates are protesting President-elect Obama's plans to have Rick Warren lead the invocation at the presidential inauguration.

Some evangelical critics of Warren are reacting with a wry smile to this. One leader whose opinions I regularly follow and usually enjoy used Warren as an example of pastors who have pursued being "cool" in the culture but who will always have to make a hard choice between being "cool" or being faithful to God's word.

I'm not sure that's the lesson to learn from Rick Warren's current troubles. Instead, I think if you're consistent in the way you present and practice the Christian worldview, you will be both loved and loathed by the world.

Tim Keller has been saying this in different settings for years. He ought to know something about being loved and loathed, being a biblically-faithful pastor in New York City. In “A New Kind of Urban Christian,” he wrote:

In every culture, some Christian conduct will be offensive and attacked, but some will be moving and attractive to outsiders. "Though they accuse you — they may see your good deeds and glorify God" (1 Peter 2:12, see also Matt. 5:16). In the Middle East, a Christian sexual ethic makes sense, but not "turn the other cheek." In secular New York City, the Christian teaching on forgiveness and reconciliation is welcome, but our sexual ethics seem horribly regressive. Every non-Christian culture has enough common grace to recognize some of the work of God in the world and to be attracted to it, even while Christianity in other ways will offend the prevailing culture.

So we must neither just denounce the culture nor adopt it. We must sacrificially serve the common good, expecting to be constantly misunderstood and sometimes attacked. We must walk in the steps of the one who laid down his life for his opponents.

And in a sermon from 1 Peter 2:12, he said:

I don’t know whether we can become a movement of people who understand what 1 Peter is saying: that the gospel creates a counter culture, but a culture that engages the community around us at the expense of persecution . . .

New Yorkers love what the Bible says about forgiveness and reconciliation and caring about the poor. They hate what it says about sex and gender and family. Go on to the Middle East and find people who love what the Bible says about sex and gender and family, but abhor the idea of forgiving people, 70 times 7. I think what 1 Peter 2:12 is trying to say is in every single culture, if you actually live distinctively in an engaged way, you will get persecution AND you will get approval. It will always be different depending on the culture. You will attract people, you will influence people. You will be salt and light and at the same time you will get punched in the mouth.

If you are only getting punched in the mouth, or if you are only getting praise, you are not living the gospel life.

Warren's evangelical critics have been annoyed that he's been presented (and done some presenting himself) as a new kind of evangelical--a gentler, kinder replacement to the old image of evangelicals as "culture warriors." They now offer a wry smile on seeing him being punched when he's been so often praised.

But that leads me to an important question: If you are a "culture warrior" who is used to getting punched, where are you getting praised? Again, our aim should be the evaluation of Christ, not the evaluation of our neighbors. But if the only thing you always get from your community is criticism, can you say you're consistently living out the Jesus Way? The same Bible that says "everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Timothy 3:12) also says we must serve our community in such a way that people will "see your good deeds and glorify God" (1 Peter 2:12). Seems to me we need to be as famous for one as for the other. Warren has received punches and praises, while some of his critics in the evangelical world need to examine why they're only getting punched.