THE DUTY OF OPPOSING
By A. W. Tozer
The nearer we draw to the heart of God the less taste we will have for controversy.
The peace we know in God's bosom is so sweet that it is but natural that we want to
keep it unbroken to enjoy as fully and as long as possible.
The Spirit-filled Christian is never a good fighter. He is at too many disadvantages.
The enemy is always better at invective than he will allow himself to be. The devil has all
the picturesque epithets, and his followers have no conscience about using them. The
Christian is always more at home blessing than he is opposing. He is, moreover, much
thinner-skinned than his adversaries. He shrinks from an angry countenance and draws
back from bitter words. They are symbols of a world he has long ago forsaken for the
quiet of the kingdom of God where love and good will prevail. All this is in his favor, for it
marks him out as a man in whom there is no hate and who earnestly desires to live at
peace with all men.
In spite of his sincere longing for peace, however, there will be times when he dare
not allow himself to enjoy it. There are times when it is a sin to be at peace. There are
circumstances when there is nothing to do but to stand up and vigorously oppose.
To wink at iniquity for the sake of peace is not a proof of superior spirituality; it is rather
a sign of a reprehensible timidity, which dare not oppose sin for fear of the
consequences. For it will cost us heavily to stand for the right when the
wrong is in the majority, which is 100 percent of the time.
We have developed in recent times a peaceloving, soft-spoken, tame and harmless
brand of Christian of whom the world has no fear and for whom it has little respect. We
are careful, for instance, never to speak in public against any of the false cults lest, we
be thought intolerant. We fear to talk against the destructive sins of modern civilization
for fear someone will brand us as bigoted and narrow. Little by little we have been
forced off the hard earth into a religious cloud-land where we are permitted to wing
our harmless way around, like swallows at sundown, saying nothing that might stir
the ire of the sons of this world.
That Neo-Christianity which seems for the time to be the most popular (and is
certainly the most aggressive), is very careful not to oppose sin. It wins its crowds by
amusing them and its converts by hiding from them the full implications of the
Christian message. It carries on its projects after the ballyhoo methods of
American business.
Well might we paraphrase Wordsworth and cry, "Elijah, thou shouldst be living
at this hour; America has need of thee: " We stand in desperate need of a few men
like Elijah who will dare to face up to the brazen sinners who dictate our every way
of life. Sin in the full proportions of a revolution or a plague has all but destroyed
our civilization while church people have played like children in the marketplace.
What has happened to the spirit of the American Christian? Has our gold become
dim? Have we lost the spirit of discernment till we can no longer recognize our
captors? How much longer will we hide in caves while Ahab and Jezabel continue to
pollute the temple and ravage the land?
Surely we should give this some serious thought and prayer before it is too late-if
indeed it is not too late already.
Yours in Christ,Paul N. F.