Militancy There are lots of lukewarm, insipid, milk-toast religions being offered out in the world or on the tube today.   These superficial, token, feel good dabblings do not represent the dynamic and powerful Christ.  As Christians, we must practice love.  Love for God and our fellow man must be the bottom line motivation for all we say and do.   We can get angry.  It is not a sin (Eph. 4:26).  In beginning and ending his ministry, Jesus got very physical in the Temple (His Father’s House).  “When He made a whip of chords, He drove them all out of the temple” (Jn. 2:15).  “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up” (Jn. 2:17; Ps. 69:9).  Jesus did this because He loved His Father so much.  In Matthew 23:13-30 He offered seven direct woes against His own religious brothers, the Jews, because He loved His Father and He loved His religious brethren.  He loved them so much He gave them warnings and in so doing gave His enemies what they were looking for, a justification to oppose Him.  He did what was right regardless of the personal consequences.  We see His agony in that same chapter in verses 37 and 38 as He knows they will not listen and will kill him.  Intensity and passion need to be evidenced in the lives of those who give themselves over to Christ to be their Lord and Master. Our intensity revolves not around our feelings or the church of our choice but rather the holy, sacred, and preserved word from God.  His  word is our truth.   Everything else is an affront  to our God and is therefore an affront to us who through His word stand clearly with Him.  You see, the Christian in times past was immature like a child and was tossed to and fro being carried about by the “whatevers” that this world would throw his way.  We had been tricked by men who were cunning and crafty and deceitful, but now we are no longer immature children.  We are now  bold and confident in who  and what we are.    We know where we stand and who clearly stands with us.  We now loudly and unapologetically speak God’s truth in love so we and others might grow in our bond with Christ, our Lord (Ph. 4:14-15). Today, maybe more than ever, there are large numbers of comfortable religious fence sitters.  Do you think these will move from their neutral and indifferent comfort zone and make a commitment to Christ if we gently and politically correctly tell them they should go to church?  I don’t think so! These need to read some intensity and excitement and enthusiasm in those who claim to be the children of God.  Maybe this is why we are not growing and converting the lost to Christ as we should.  Have we lost our  intensity that  we had when  we were at first in love with Christ (Rev. 2:4)?  Is our Christianity now just a mundane routine?  Whose fault is this?  Satan usually has us point our finger to everyone but ourselves.   On judgment day Christ won’t let us get away with the justification/blame game.  We will give account for what WE have done or not done regarding the TIME He has given us. Rudeness is not  the militancy  to which we are called.  Rudeness  is socially wrong, and it is a sin before God (Lk. 6:31).  Yes, we must be like Jesus and take a stand.  When we take a stand, know we will have opposition.  Jesus says in so doing sometimes our enemies will be those of our own family.  It is true that we can’t be spineless jellyfish and represent the Awesome Creator and Master of the universe.  We are to have a God-given backbone within us. Because we are strong in the Lord, we are sometimes accused of being “unloving” or “judgmental.”  We must not let the rationalizing mechanisms of those who do not know our Lord cause us to compromise even a little bit.  If anything, we  need to  make sure of our  own salvation (2 Cor. 13:5) and in so doing commit to an even deeper relationship with our God. In fulfilling the commitment-militancy to which we are called, we will note or mark divisive and false teachers.  We  will avoid  them (Ro. 16:17).  We  do  this as individuals.  There  is no  church authority authorized by Christ to make these calls for us.  We can only do this IF we are clear regarding the doctrine (word) entrusted to us by Christ.  We know with certainty it is the authorized words of Christ that will be the final judge for all of us (Jn. 12:48). We are spiritually challenged to be involved in a spiritual warfare for our own souls are at risk as well as the souls of others (Ephesians 6:11-18).  There can be no complacency or indifference.  There can only be   strength  and power in putting on the spiritual armor described for battle.  You and I and Timothy are admonished by Paul to “Fight the good fight of the faith” (1 Tim. 6:12).  Again, this is not passiveness but rather is  alertness and diligence  and passion and intensity.  Militancy  is not easy.  It requires constant work.  After all Christ has done, does do, and continues to do for us, it is just reasonable that we Christians in this world must endure hardships as a good soldier of Jesus Christ (2 Tim. 2:3). As good soldiers, we will not grumble or complain but rather will with joy and thanksgiving fulfill the purpose and direction our perfect commander gives us.  As soldiers of Christ, Let us arise and put our armor on as we prepare for the battles of life. I am just like you in that I don’t like it when others think negatively of me because of my militant stand with Christ; however, I am willing to live with this if on Judgment Day I can hear from my Commander, “Well done good and faithful servant.”