Contextualizing the Gospel

Excellent post by Steve Camp.

Beloved, the gospel does not benefit one bit from our programs, methods, target specific agendas, cultural analysis, or contextualization of its truth. Scripture affords no luxury for such human pragmatics when it comes to the salvation of lost souls. The gospel IS the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16-17); and it is the Lord who adds to the church daily (Acts 2:42ff)--not us.

Paul combats an early rise of sectarian contextualized views of ministry when saying,

"So, what is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth" (1 Cor. 3:5-7).

Paul never sought to contextualize the gospel by being culturally relevant but "sought to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2).

In this same vain, it has been asserted today that the church should strive to have a "humble orthodoxy", but beloved, I couldn't disagree more. Truth by definition is exclusive; truth is commanding; it is bold; and it is unwavering. Christian doctrine and theology contained in the pages of Holy Scripture (the 66 books of the O.T. and N.T.) is objective truth; it is unbending, unyielding, uncompromising, and it asks not for man's approval, but demands obedience to its claims. It is... God's Word and He does not negotiate with His creatures as to what is acceptable or not. His Word silences all other "truth assertions" by taking "every thought captive to the obedience in Christ" (2 Cor. 10:1-5). There is nothing humble about truth, about orthodoxy; however, the truth does humble its listeners.

What we do need are humble servants of Christ proclaiming a bold orthodoxy; not watering down the offense of the cross (1 Cor. 1:18ff); but in ourselves to give no offense so as to discredit the ministry (2 Cor. 6:1-3). Paul was such a man: "For they say, 'His letters are weighty and strong' (a bold orthodoxy), 'but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible'" (a humble servant) (2 Cor. 10:10).

Read the full article here: http://stevenjcamp.blogspot.com