As Christians, it is believed that we should always be more driven by our missionary identity than we are by our national identity, our political identity, our environmental identity, our social identity, or even our church identity.
We ought to obey God rather than men, but here on earth, we must face the reality that our culture is not to be our primary identity.
Nowadays, it's very difficult to share the Gospel because it is either the people have heard of if or they just don't want anything to do with it.
However, no matter how messed up this world is, we must remember that our culture is a mission field. We must see ourselves as people on mission. This is not our home. This is our mission field. Therefore, we all must see our vocations as a mission or kingdom work.
According to I Peter 2:11, that verse tells us that we are strangers and exiles. "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;"
Let's put this into the facts that we know about our population. If the percentage of people who are nominally Christian is shrinking and nominal Christians become nothing, then we are dwelling in an increasingly secular land.
Meaning, the flesh is taking over. Don't get me wrong, nobody is perfect, even Chrsitians have the tendency to act in a worldly fashion, but we must remember that when we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, the old attitude and habits that we have are slowly changing.
"Old habits die hard" but if we surrender completely to God, nothing is impossible through Him.
As a result, we need a reemphasis on Gospel clarity. Being labeled Christian no longer means as us being a 'social Christian', but instead, it is someone who's been changed by the power of the Gospel, not just any gospel, but the true word of God, if indeed you have. This is a vital theological shift in the way we are viewed and should view our land.
Having a changed heart, attitude and habit will not justify our relationship with God. However, as the Bible verse says "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (II Corinthians 5:17).
Understanding these shifts is necessary because we live in an age of outrage. People in our land get ticked off by things that they don't like. This calls us to Gospel clarity. And missionary identity, seeing ourselves as strangers and temporary residents, is what will pull us towards showing & sharing the love of Jesus as we should.
Of course, the "change" will not come as fast as we want it to be. To some, it happens in a blink. To others, it's just as gradual as a sand being drained from a timer.
We must keep in mind that the key to changing our old ways is by surrendering fully to God.
No holding back, just complete surrender.
