Offended by truth...

I have been reading John.  Right now my reading is focused on Jesus' attitudes and actions.  I'm pondering the general "sales approach" of the gospel.  When Jesus talked to people, he frequently said things that were hard to understand... that don't make sense at face value.  Other times, He said things that were flat out offensive.  You might think He needed to read "How to Win Friends and Influence People".  He told them why they couldn't follow Him.  There are times when He made awesome claims, but these often seem unbelievable.  I guess I'm reading with the mindset of how I might have responded to Jesus had I lived in His day. 

The thing that I'm pondering hard on now, is the approach to sharing the gospel.  People want to make it appealing - but I don't really see that Jesus did that much.  He did miracles, to be sure, which is appealing, but after that He talked about dying and not having a place to sleep and eating His flesh.  He was confident in what He shared... in Who He was.  He knew Truth and let it speak.  I wonder if Christ followers need to be more authentic - more truth tellers.  It would be better not to worry about what people think of me - in some respects - and just tell the truth.  If I just speak truth and not worry about how they will or if they will receive it... Not worry about the fact that sometimes it seems like crazy talk to someone who doesn't know Him and sometimes even to ones that do.  How do you let the reality of Jesus shade everything?

It's a transformation that needs to take place. If I am to be like Jesus, then I speak truth with love always to anyone.  I don't worry about offending them because of truth telling.  And I don't reject them if they reject truth because it's not my job to judge; truth will do that already.  I am not God and I cannot save nor judge them; God does that.  The truth will set them free if they believe it and I can't make them believe it.  Yes, they could confound me with questions and circular reasoning that I can't answer.  I am not Jesus and I might get tangled in the confusion.  This doesn't change the truth of the truth.  God can and does break through all of this in His time.  I need to love well and speak truth well.  People may be offended by truth - but this is love.

Now the balancing side is that I want to represent Christ well.  Too many times it is the life of Christians that keep people from coming to Christ.  However, this does not mean to always be happy or to only state the positive side of following Jesus.  This means to live in love and integrity.  It means to tell the truth to ourselves as well as to others.  It means to continually submit our lives to the truth and to refining.  I need to examine this and live this... every day.