8 Things the World Desperately Needs from Evangelicals Right Now (Part 2)

God has more work to do in us.

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times}p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times; min-height: 14.0px}p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 7.2px; font: 12.0px Times; min-height: 14.0px}p.p4 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 7.2px; font: 12.0px Times}span.s1 {text-decoration: underline}The country was divided into three culturally distinct sociological groupings. There were those with power. For the most part, these were ungodly, corrupt, and self-serving leaders who craved power for power’s sake and would do anything to be near it, to seize it, and to keep it. There were those with religious power. Often, these leaders would carefully craft messages that played well on both sides as they nurtured their sacred/secular influence – largely for their own benefit. And there were those with no power. This vulnerable class ranged from sincere and devout God-fearing citizens, who earnestly desired to live with principled fidelity, to the piously pragmatic, who were easily manipulated by their own appetites for personal security and economic wellbeing.

This was the world to which Jesus introduced his worldview. His Kingdom ethic found no appeal to those with power – it was an affront to the political class who saw no need to forgive or be forgiven. It also was uninviting to those with religious power as it reordered the nature of true spirituality from the outwardly superficial to matters of internal motivation. To those without power, but who craved the security that worldly power brings, Jesus’ words were nonsensical – offering little in practical expediency. But to those who were hungry for a life of spiritual and physical congruency, Jesus’ words were light and truth and ...