Stay focused, believer

To paraphrase an old automobile commercial - this is not your father's society.

Photo credit: Z4Free Z4Free, from pexels.com

Men are marrying men, and women are marrying women.

Men are becoming women, and women are becoming men. On the outside, anyway.

“Men” can now have their own monthly visitor (Well who wouldn’t want that!) and can even become mothers. No, wait – birthing persons.  

Parents have their four-year-old tomboy daughters on hormone blockers in preparation for future mutilation gender reassignment surgery.

And women’s sports – organized to offer women the same competitive opportunities as men – have become antagonistic toward women.

So many common (and common sense) terms have been redefined, Noah Webster’s first dictionary would today be at the top of the banned book list.

Sidebar: We should have seen this coming when a sitting President of the United States decided to redefine the word “is” during a deposition.

But more out of place than all these issues:  the extent to which many professing followers of Christ obsess over them.

That all of them are out of line with the teachings of God’s Word isn’t a debatable topic – they clearly are. But so are the inordinate amounts of time, attention, and vitriol devoted to them by people who should be more focused on something else.

During his final days before ascending to Heaven, Jesus made it clear that those who would follow Him should have a singular focus.

John’s Gospel records several events found nowhere else in Scripture. In the last of them, Jesus appears to a group of disciples on the shores of Galilee where they had spent much time together and where several of them had grown up.

At the very end of this account – almost as though it was one final word to the entire group – Jesus gives Peter a glimpse of how he’ll spend his last days many years hence. In response, Peter gestures toward John and asks, “What about him?”

It’s not really a surprising question. After all, John was the only one of the twelve who witnessed the crucifixion first-hand. He was the one Jesus asked to care for Mary. He was the one closest to Jesus at the Last Supper. No doubt their bond was obvious (as was Jesus and Peter’s) to everyone.

But though not surprising, the question was still improper – or at least out of place.

Jesus had just directed Peter to continue preaching the Gospel. “Feed my sheep.” In context, it’s clear that Jesus’ intention in prophesying of Peter’s death was to spur him to stay focused on the Gospel message for as long and as fervently as he could, because the day was coming when he’d no longer have the freedom to do so.

But Peter loses that focus, apparently more interested in whether John will have a more honorable – or perhaps more preferable – death.

Jesus’ redirection leaves no room for interpretation. “What is that to you? Follow me.”

It’s a direction we all would do well to remember. After all, which is more important - what others are doing in contradiction of God’s Word, or what we should be doing in fulfillment of it?

Should we be concerned at what’s happening in our society? Absolutely.
Should we be clear about where we stand? No doubt.
Should we protect our children from those who would seek to indoctrinate them in an anti-Christian theology that redefines truth? Of course.

But -

Should we put more effort into fighting a culture war than we put into sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
Should we be so vested in besting people who need to hear that Gospel that we lose any chance of sharing it with them?

You don’t need me to answer those questions. You already know the answer to both of them.

“Follow me.”