I used to be criticized for being too black and white. It used to bother me. So much so, I internalized it and started to think, what is wrong with me? Tried to work out what people meant by, too black and white. I don’t get it. Why the criticism?
Criticism can be very good, very helpful. Sometimes it’s the only way we find out about blind spots, or grow. This was different…
It takes a 1st grader only a few seconds to realize blending black and white makes grey. This is OK if you are mixing paint colors for an artwork. This is never OK for the Christian life. Grey makes for a very dull, uninteresting, powerless and conviction-less Christian life. I realized the critics were themselves just plain boring grey and didn’t want their boats rocked.
Grey is drab.
Grey is boring.
Grey is just playing it safe.
Grey is complacent.
Grey is apathetic.
Grey numbs us to sin.
Grey becomes OK with sin.
Grey becomes self-absorbed and self-serving.
Grey’s end is coldheartedness toward God and His people.
Grey does very little about the people headed for a Christ-less eternity.
Grey doesn’t see God working amazing miracles.
Grey is more concerned with status quo
Grey’s faith is small.
Grey is like a very dull ax head–no good to be used for the purpose it was created.
Grey makes for a powerless Christian life.
Grey rarely prays.
Grey is little changed by God’s Word.
BUT grey feels good, looks good, doesn’t require much work. Grey makes for a politically correct Christian–fitting in with society. Grey is loved by the world (James 4:4). Grey can even have an outward look of success. Grey doesn’t rock many boats–doesn’t cause waves.
Jesus rocked boats. Actually, He turned them fully upside down. Jesus didn’t live grey. He lived white-hot.
God says grey is lukewarm. God doesn’t like grey, it makes Him gag. I know your deeds, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth, Revelation 3:15,16.
God wants us to be living white-hot for Him. White hot, full of zeal, passionately pursuing Him, and passionately pursuing people with His message of love and grace.
The longer I live, the more I know, God wants us to rightly divide Truth and bring God’s life-changing grace to a world that desperately needs.
Rightly dividing truth requires extreme black and white. This is not gracelessness. Grey will condescend and try to call this gracelessness. But the condescension is to throw attention off their own conviction-less life.
Rightly dividing truth is required so every person understands their vital need of God’s grace. Without truth, there is no recognition of sin, and people have no awareness of their need of grace.
Truth and grace go hand in hand. One should never be given without the other. All grace and no truth equals a weak, grey Christian. All truth and no grace equals a legalistic, Christ-less religion, void of life.
The bible is extreme black and white. It pulls no punches. The message of Jesus is extreme and absolute. It requires a choice: choose Jesus, or don’t. There is no room in the gospel message for grey, choose Jesus, or don’t.
There’s no middle ground with God. No mixing colors. No blending or watering down convictions. It’s all, or it’s nothing at all.
Live white-hot for Jesus.
